CINCINNATI _ Junior Guerra is back.
The right-hander turned in his strongest start in six weeks, throwing six shutout innings to help lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night at Great American Ball Park.
Scooter Gennett and Domingo Santana each homered to power the offense as the Brewers avoided a series sweep while posting their seventh shutout of the season.
The Brewers struck quickly, loading the bases with a pair of walks and a single against Tim Adleman in the second inning. Manny Pina followed by blooping a single to left with one out, making it 2-0.
They doubled their advantage to 4-0 in the fourth as Chris Carter drew a walk and Gennett homered to right on an 0-2 pitch.
There was action on the bases by the Reds in five of the six innings Guerra pitched _ he threw a 1-2-3 fifth _ but they were never able to cash in against him.
Guerra (9-3) was making his third start since returning from the disabled list Sept. 2, and it was easily his most effective as he limited Cincinnati to three hits and two walks with five strikeouts over 86 pitches. He also hit a batter.
It was Guerra's best outing since July 29 _ the start before he was injured _ when he limited the Pittsburgh Pirates to four hits and a run over a career-best 8 2/3 innings. He dropped his earned-run average to 2.81 in the process.
He also continued Milwaukee's streak of strong starts, dropping the six-man rotation's ERA to a major league-best 2.74 over the last 23 games.
Corey Knebel, Jhan Marinez and Taylor Jungmann each threw a scoreless inning out of the bullpen. It was Jungmann's first action for the Brewers since late April.
Santana's booming three-run homer into the second deck off Ross Ohlendorf in the eighth capped the scoring.
