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MIL@NYM: Greinke shuts down Mets in fourth win

Zack Greinke and the Brewers stand in the way of the Twins as they go for a three-game sweep in Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon.

The Twins, who have yet to sweep a three-game series this season, are surging and have won a season-high four in a row. Minnesota's offense has found its groove during the win streak, scoring 31 runs over those four games.

"The balls we're hitting hard are actually finding holes," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We all know in this game that sometimes you hit balls hard but right at people. So sometimes when things start going your way, balls start landing.

"There's a lot of luck in this game. Sometimes balls ricochet off someone right to a guy or sometimes it ricochets in a hole. Plus, some better at-bats. Everybody has a little more confidence after winning a few ballgames."

The Twins won, 5-4, in 11 innings on Saturday after scoring 11 runs on 16 hits in the series-opener on Friday. But the Brewers are hoping Greinke can silence Minnesota's hot bats.

Greinke has been terrific this season and followed a scoreless eight-inning outing against the Reds with seven scoreless innings against the Mets on Tuesday. The right-hander had 18 strikeouts over those two starts and hasn't walked a batter in his past 18 innings.

"My control has been good the last two starts," Greinke said. "That's the main key: Not making a lot of mistakes and holding them to singles for the most part. Just trying to make good pitches. I've been able to do that the last two starts."

The Brewers backed him in New York with eight runs, but it's been a very inconsistent start for the Milwaukee offense. Manager Ron Roenicke shook things up this weekend in a big way, bumping Corey Hart to the leadoff spot and dropping Rickie Weeks to sixth.

"I mean, [the hitters] will hit eventually," Greinke said. "We're too good of an offensive team. There's a lot of teams that we have better offense than, and it just hasn't happened so far."

Hart is 4-for-10 in two games as the leadoff man, while Weeks is 1-for-7 since dropping in the order.

Twins: Marquis looks to end struggles
Jason Marquis starts for Minnesota, looking for his first win in May.

The right-hander is winless in his last three outings and is working to pitch at a faster pace after struggling this season with a 6.68 ERA in six starts.

"We talked about picking up the pace," Gardenhire said. "He's open to suggestions right now. He's going through a tough period. [Pitching coach Rick] Anderson and him watched some video. And he threw a nice bullpen where he picked up the pace to see how that feels. But he has to take it on the mound. We can talk about all we want."

Marquis is 6-10 with a 4.95 ERA in his career against the Brewers in 22 appearances, including 19 starts.

Brewers: Perez joins bullpen
The Brewers added left-handed reliever Juan Perez to their bullpen on Saturday. Perez was recalled from Triple-A Nashville, replacing right-hander Vinnie Chulk

Perez faced two batters on Saturday, walking Denard Span and hitting Ben Revere with a pitch with the bases loaded before he was pulled in favor of Jose Veras.

Still, Roenicke called Perez "a true left-hander to get out lefties."

"Manny [Parra] has been doing a good job getting out the left-handers, but he can go through righties, he can be a long man," Roenicke added. "[Perez] gives us a guy maybe more specific to what we need. We've come across a lot of left-handed lineups, and we're getting stuck in that middle relief part where we're having to put in some right-handers against some lefties. We'd rather not do that."

Chulk was designated for assignment after allowing 10 runs on 17 hits in nine innings of relief.

Worth noting
• The Brewers are 1-5 on Sundays this year. The Twins are 2-4.

• The last Twins pitcher to hit a home run was Jim Kaat on June 11, 1972.

• Milwaukee is 9-11 at home.

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