CINCINNATI -- Kyle Lohse is making a habit of finishing strong.
Lohse made the most of another wasteful day for Milwaukee's offense, throwing a two-hitter and driving in a run on Wednesday night for a 5-0 victory over Cincinnati.
"Hopefully we get a lot of luck here and maybe he gets another start," manager Ron Roenicke said.
Milwaukee (81-77) stayed alive in the race for the second wild card Wednesday night. San Francisco then lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers to keep the Brewers mathematically afloat with a four-game deficit and four to play. Any Brewers loss or Giants win over the final days of the season would deny Milwaukee a one-game play-in for the NL's last spot.
The Brewers led the NL Central for 150 days, but fell apart at the end. Since June 28th, they've gone 30-45. The offense had unraveled, scoring two or fewer runs in each of the previous six games.
"It's been tough for everybody," said Lohse (13-9), who faced only 29 batters. "It just felt like we were climbing uphill the whole time and couldn't get anything going. Unfortunately that's the way it's been going."
Lohse gave up a pair of singles by Jack Hannahan, didn't walk a batter and fanned six in his second shutout of the season. He also had a sacrifice fly during Milwaukee's three-run eighth inning, which was highlighted by Jean Segura's two-run double.
If Segura hadn't doubled, Roenicke was going to pinch-hit for Lohse to try to get more runs.
"I think he saved me there," Lohse said. "That was huge."
The big inning allowed Lohse to finish the season the same way he did last year. Lohse also threw a two-hitter in his final start of 2013, a 4-0 win at Atlanta.
"It's weird," Lohse noted.
Rickie Weeks had a pair of singles and drove in a run, and Carlos Gomez had an RBI double off Daniel Corcino (0-2), who made his third start in the majors.
The Brewers got a run in the fourth, but even that came with a misplay. Aramis Ramirez doubled, advanced on a groundout, and scored on Weeks' single. Weeks was thrown out by more than 10 feet as he tried to stretch it to a double.
Gomez doubled home a run in the fifth, when the Brewers left the bases loaded. The Brewers loaded the bases again in the seventh with two outs, but Ramirez grounded out, keeping it 2-0.
Billy Hamilton made the game's best play. He stretched above the fence in center to steal a home run away from Ryan Braun in the third inning, slamming the right side of his head hard against the fence. He held the side of his head as he left the field and came out of the game in the fifth with a mild concussion.
