PHOENIX _ Jimmy Nelson is no closer to figuring out the issues that have been plaguing him for the past two months.
In fact, he may well have taken a step back on Sunday afternoon. He struggled through 4 1/3 innings, committing two errors and hitting two batters along the way, as the Milwaukee Brewers were blown out by the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-3, at Chase Field.
Nelson (6-11) now has failed to get out of the fifth inning in each of his last three starts, while the Brewers capped their final West Coast swing of the season with a 2-4 record. It was quite a turnaround from the previous evening, when Milwaukee set season highs in runs and hits with a 15-6 victory.
Milwaukee held a 2-0 lead after three innings thanks in large part to Jonathan Villar.
He opened the game by working a 14-pitch walk from Arizona right-hander Archie Bradley, stole second on the next pitch, went to third on an Orlando Arcia groundout and scored on a wild pitch. Then Villar led off the third with a home run to left-center, his ninth of the season and the fourth of the series for the Brewers.
Nelson, like Bradley, found himself making some high-stress pitches early in the game.
His first challenge came in the third, when Jean Segura singled and stole second and Paul Goldschmidt drew a two-out walk. Nelson tried picking off Segura at second but his throw sailed into center, allowing the runners to move into scoring position for cleanup hitter Jake Lamb.
Nelson caught Lamb looking at a called third strike, though, to escape the jam. The punchout was Nelson's third of the inning.
He wasn't so fortunate in the fourth. Nelson surrendered a broken-bat single to Yasmany Tomas, then hit former Brewer Rickie Weeks, Jr. and Chris Owings in consecutive at-bats to quickly load the bases with nobody out.
Tuffy Gosewich followed with a pop foul to the left side that Villar gloved as he reached over the railing in front of the Arizona dugout and tumbled over it. Tomas tagged and scored as Villar tried making a throw from the seat of his pants and behind the fence, and Weeks and Owings each tagged up as well.
The bad defense continued. Bradley dropped down a suicide squeeze bunt to the right side of the mound and Weeks scored easily, with Andy Wilkins' throw to Martin Maldonado going to the backstop.
Nelson could have been out of the inning there, but on a chopper back to the mound he airmailed a throw over Wilkins that allowed Owings to score to make it 3-2.
Villar tied the game for the Brewers in the fifth by walking, stealing second, going to third on Gosewich's throwing error and scoring on Arcia's single.
It didn't last long, as Arizona exploded for five runs in the bottom half to chase Nelson.
Paul Goldschmidt drew a leadoff walk, and Lamb homered to left-center to make it 5-3. After Tomas struck out, Weeks doubled, stole third and scored on a triple by Owings. That ended Nelson's day at 93 pitches, and sent him to the showers still having won just once since May 29.
Nelson allowed seven hits, seven runs (six earned) and three walks to go along with four strikeouts.
Michael Blazek relieved Nelson and two batters in allowed a two-run homer to pinch-hitter Phil Gosselin that stretched the Diamondbacks' lead to 8-3. They added another run against Blazek in the sixth.
