MILWAUKEE _ Only two days earlier, the Milwaukee Brewers watched the Chicago Cubs rally for five runs in the seventh inning to pull out a victory in a long, frustrating ball game.
It felt much better to score five in the eighth and turn the tables on the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Brewers sent 10 hitters to the plate in the eighth and took advantage of Arizona's leaky bullpen Tuesday night to pull away to a 9-4 victory at Miller Park, their second consecutive victory over the Diamondbacks.
The teams traded runs throughout the game until the Brewers snapped a 4-4 tie with their big inning. With the bases loaded and one down, Scooter Gennett punched a soft liner up the middle that barely eluded diving second baseman Phil Gosselin for a two-run single off reliever Daniel Hudson.
Before the inning was done, Kirk Nieuwenhuis drew a bases-loaded walk from left-hander Zac Curtis to force in a run and Jonathan Villar delivered a two-run single to blow the game wide open.
Both starting pitchers retired the first two hitters in the first inning but had trouble recording the third out. Jean Segura started Arizona's rally with a hustle double to center and scored when Paul Goldschmidt singled up the middle off Matt Garza.
Welington Castillo's double to right-center scored Goldschmidt for a 2-0 lead, and the inning stayed alive on a throwing error by Villar before Garza finally ended it by getting Chris Owings to bounce out to third.
Arizona lefty Patrick Corbin's troubles began with a two-walk to Ryan Braun. Jonathan Lucroy singled to center and Chris Carter kept the line moving with an RBI hit in the same direction. Gennett drew the second walk of the inning to load the bases, and Jake Elmore made Corbin pay with a two-strike, two-run single to center that put the Brewers on top, 3-2.
Garza worked around a leadoff double in the third by Gosselin to keep the lead. Third baseman Hernan Perez helped with a fine backhand play down the line on a sharp grounder by Goldschmidt with one down, robbing him of an RBI hit.
The Diamondbacks tied the game with a run in the fourth, a rally that began with a leadoff walk by Yasmany Tomas and continued with a four-pitch walk to Corbin. Michael Bourn's RBI grounder delivered the run that made it 3-3.
Corbin settled down after his rough first inning, allowing just one hit over the next four frames. But he found trouble in the sixth when Braun singled to center to boost his hitting streak to 11 games and Lucroy followed with a walk.
Right-hander Enrique Burgos took over for Corbin and had a chance to escape the inning when Carter grounded into a double play. But Gennett ripped a sharp one-hopper off the glove of diving shortstop Segura for an RBI single that put the Brewers on top, 4-3.
Garza exited after six innings with one of his better starts of the season, having allowed five hits and three runs with two walks and two strikeouts.
Left-hander Will Smith, coming off a rough outing Sunday that cost the Brewers a win against the Cubs, found more trouble when he took over for Garza to begin the seventh. With one down, Bourn bunted for a hit and continued to second when Smith threw wildly past first base.
Bourn moved to third on a groundout and Smith walked Segura, prompting manager Craig Counsell to summon right-hander Tyler Thornburg to face Goldschmidt. With two strikes, Goldschmidt checked his swing and hit a grounder wide of first base that eluded the diving Carter for an RBI hit that tied the score.
