PHOENIX -- Ian Kennedy’s struggles continued Friday night, as did the Diamondbacks’ difficulties at home.
Kennedy has now lost five straight starts, the worst stretch of his career, after giving up four runs in a 7-1 loss to the Brewers at Chase Field. The D-backs lost for the 15th time in their last 19 home games and are in danger of losing their seventh straight home series.
Kennedy already has more losses losses than he did last season, and while he has shown flashes of the dominance that drove him to a 21-4 record and fourth-place finish in the NL Cy Young balloting in 2011, he has been unable to sustain that as consistently early this season.
“They are different years, it’s obvious," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "I don’t think he’s locating the ball down as much as he needs to do. He’s not able to throw his secondary pitches for strikes like he did (last year).
“He’s close. It’s just too much elevation in his pitches.”
Kennedy (3-5) has given up 20 runs in 30 innings, and home runs have been an issue. He has given up seven homers in his last four starts -- two to the Cardinals, Royals and Brewers and one to the Dodgers.
Rickie Weeks’ bases-empty homer in the second inning was Milwaukee's only hit through an efficient three innings by Kennedy, who threw only nine pitches in the first inning and retired nine of the first 10 he faced.
The Brewers struck quickly in the fourth, however, when Nyjer Morgan walked, went to second on a balk and scored when Ryan Braun lined an opposite-field home run to right, his 13th of the year. It was 4-1 when Cesar Izturis singled in a run after Kennedy hit Travis Ishikawa with two outs.
“Braun’s ball was elevated. The ball to Weeks was inside and elevated. We know we have to stay away on him -- he’s been pulling off the ball,” Gibson said.
Added right fielder Justin Upton, "You miss your spot with a fastball in this league, it’s going to get hit. We have confidence in him. He’s a hard worker. He’s going to turn it around and he's going to be OK."
At the same time, Kennedy has had little margin for error recently. The D-backs have scored 2, 1, 0, 0, 0 and 1 runs while he was in the game in his last six starts, the first a no-decision when the bullpen could not hold his 2-1 lead in Miami on April 28.
Among his losses are a 2-1 defeat to Ross Detwiler in Washington on May 3 and a 3-1 defeat to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers on May 14.
“You have to give credit to the starter -- I was the second-best pitcher that day (in Washington). And Kershaw,” Kennedy said of those losses. “Those are tough games to lose, but I also haven’t pitched good enough to win the other three out of the five. It’s frustrating. You don’t want to throw five losses in a row out there.
“It’s a bad run. I’ve mixed some good ones in there and mixed some bad ones. It’s been rough so far. I’m obviously trying to figure out what it is every single time. We work hard in between starts, whether it is mechanical, whether it is other things. I just have to keep the same approach, throw every pitch with conviction, and let the results be what they will be.”
Of course, the last thing the D-backs needed Friday was to face Brewers right-hander Yovani Gallardo, but there he was.
Gallardo is 7-0 with a 1.23 ERA in eight career starts against the D-backs, including Game 1 and Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS, when he faced Kennedy twice. Gallardo won Game 1, and the two had matching no-decisions in Game 5.
Gallardo tamed a D-backs offense that was so explosive in the final two games of the series with the Dodgers, when it had 18 runs and 29 hits, the team's highest hit total in two straight games since August 2009.
Jason Kubel homered to straightaway center field in the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 4-1, but the D-backs got only two more hits off Gallardo, when Justin Upton beat out a bunt down the third-base line and Kubel followed with a single to center in the sixth. Chris Young then hit into his second double play of the game and Lyle Overbay struck out, and the Brewers extended their lead on Corey Hart’s two-run homer in the seventh.
The D-backs hit into four double plays.
“He made some good pitches,” Gibson said of Gallardo.
Gibson, who takes notes on the back of his lineup card during games, said Gallardo threw five different pitches in the first inning -- and he only needed six, total, in a 1-2-3 inning.
“He’s got good stuff. Doesn’t it look good? He locates. He’s throwing it up to 94 miles an hour. He has a good game plan and he executes it. He has great command, and once you get ahead in the count, you get guys to travel out of the zone a little bit,” Gibson said.
