MILWAUKEE _ The Milwaukee Brewers are getting a sublime mixture of effective pitching and opportunistic offense these days, with the usual results.
Completing an impressive three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, the first-place Brewers capped their final homestand of the first half Wednesday night with a 4-0 blanking at Miller Park.
The victory put the Brewers seven games over .500 (47-40), matching their high-water mark for the season (25-18 on May 19). It also allowed them to retain their 3{-game lead atop the National League Central Division with four games remaining before the All-Star break.
Right-hander Matt Garza escaped some early jams to turn in 61/3 scoreless innings, completing a three-day bonanza for the Brewers' starting rotation. Brent Suter, Jimmy Nelson and Garza combined to shackle the Orioles by allowing no earned runs over 201/3 innings.
Trying to avoid a sweep, the Orioles were forced to go with spot starter Jayson Aquino from the minors when Chris Tillman departed on paternity leave. Aquino held his own for the most part, allowing only three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings, but that wasn't good enough on this night.
Garza was forced to work hard to keep the Orioles off the board in the early going, but never more so than in the second inning, when they loaded the bases with no outs on a double by Mark Trumbo, infield hit by Trey Mancini and walk to Welington Castillo.
Ruben Tejada took a called third strike, bringing up Aquino for his first major league at-bat. He had no chance, also striking out, allowing Garza to escape by retiring Seth Smith on a fly to right field.
The Orioles then handed a run to the Brewers in the bottom of the inning. Travis Shaw led off with an opposite-field double and was still on second with two down when third baseman Manny Machado failed to backhand Keon Broxton's bouncer, committing a run-scoring error.
It was still 1-0 when the Brewers scored three runs in the fourth, a rally that started with Ryan Braun's double off the right-field wall. With one down, Domingo Santana bounced a single off the glove of diving shortstop Tejada, and Braun aggressively scored as the ball trickled into shallow left.
Aquino popped up Manny Pina, but Broxton crushed a first-pitch cutter out to left-center for his 14th home run and the Brewers had a 4-0 lead. Garza, who boosted his career record against Baltimore to 10-1, settled down nicely in the middle innings and the bullpen took it from there, finishing off the sweep.
Corey Knebel took care of the ninth inning, extending his major league record to 41 consecutive appearances with at least one strikeout
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