MILWAUKEE _ Add "power hitter" to Jonathan Villar's resume.
The speedy infielder hit a pair of solo homers _ one from each side of the plate _ on Wednesday night to lift the Milwaukee Brewers to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park.
Villar homered in the fourth and again in the eighth, giving him three in his last two games and four in his last four as the Brewers earned a rare series victory against their National League Central rivals.
Matt Garza also turned in another strong start, pitching six solid innings, while Keon Broxton made a homer-saving catch in the top of the ninth to rob Anthony Rizzo of his second homer of the evening.
Villar's second homer came off Joe Smith's first offering in the bottom of the eighth, a sinker that he crushed well up the scoreboard in straightaway center field. He became the first Brewers player to homer from both sides of the plate since Jose Valentin on July 1, 1999, against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
It was also the first multiple-homer game for Villar, whose claim to fame for most of this season has been his ability to steal bases. He now has a career-high 14 homers to go along with those 52 stolen bases.
Milwaukee took that lead to the bottom of the ninth, and after Tyler Thornburg struck out Kris Bryant for the first out, Rizzo followed with a moon shot to center that appeared to be on its way over the wall near the cutout in left-center field.
Broxton approached the wall, timed his leap perfectly and snatched the ball back to the dismay of Rizzo and the relief of Thornburg. The right-hander then got Ben Zobrist to fly out to right to record his ninth save of the season.
Garza found himself in a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the opening inning after Bryant and Rizzo singled and Zobrist drew a walk. But he escaped by getting Addison Russell to hit into a forceout at home and Chris Coghlan to ground out to shortstop.
From there, Garza faced the minimum over the next four innings. He struck out three straight and four of five bridging the second and third innings, and needed just four pitches to get three groundouts in the fifth.
The Brewers didn't manage a baserunner until the third against left-hander Mike Montgomery, when Manny Pina walked. Their first baserunner came in the fourth, when Villar led off by homering into Milwaukee's bullpen in left-center.
Garza got the first two outs in the sixth before Rizzo responded with a booming solo shot into the second deck in right to tie it at 1-1.
He finished out the inning with no further damage and exited in the bottom half for a pinch-hitter having allowed three hits and two walks to go along with five strikeouts. Over his last three starts (181/3 innings), Garza has posted a 0.98 ERA with 22 strikeouts.
