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Praising Bush haunts Brewers’ Macha

PHOENIX — Say something good about somebody and it can come back to haunt you.

Milwaukee Brewers’ manager Ken Macha heaped praise on Brewers’ pitcher Dave Bush before his start Wednesday against the Arizona Diamonbacks, and wound up with egg on his face.

The Diamondbacks roughed up Bush for six runs and 13 hits in six innings, including homers by Chad Tracy, Tony Clark and Felipe Lopez. Milwaukee survived Bush’s bad outing, to post an 8-7 victory

Bush had been having a strong spring, with a 3-0 record and 2.70 ERA in seven appearances (six starts).

“I guess I must have put a little whammy on him,” Macha said. “He was a little bit out of sync, his timing was off a little bit.”

After building up Bush, Macha lauded the Brewers’ minor league coaching staff for the way young players are prepared to play for the big club in spring training.

“They are not afraid when you put them in. They have been schooled properly,” said Macha, whose team is 19-10-3 and plays its final home game of the spring today against the Chicago White Sox.

Meanwhile, Diamondbacks’ pitcher Dan Haren looks ready to start the season.

Making his eighth start of the spring, Haren gave up two runs on three hits and struck out five in five innings. Corey Hart hit a two-run homer in the third, his seventh of the spring, to cut Arizona’s lead to 3-2.

The same can’t be said for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ bullpen, which coughed up a four-run lead as the Brewers rallied for the victory.

Once Haren left the game, Milwaukee’s hitters went to work.

Chris Duffy opened the sixth with a home run off right-hander Jon Rauch, who has struggled mightily this spring.

Hart nearly hit his second homer of the day but was robbed by right fielder Justin Upton on a leaping catch near the top of the fence.

Left-hander Doug Slaten was tagged for four runs in the seventh, and Milwaukee added another run in the eighth on a base hit by Craig Counsell. That would prove to be the difference as Arizona scored once in the ninth and left the tying run at third base.

“That’s the way it’s been the past couple of days, one bad inning for us,” said Arizona manager Bob Melvin, whose team fell to 11-20. “We’re doing some good things early on, some good things offensively. ... We are running the bases a little better ... but one bad inning out of the bullpen has cost us the game.”

Haren, who had a career-high 16 wins (16-8) and 216 strikeouts in his first season in Arizona in 2008, said he is set to go.

“I felt really good out there. I’m right where I want to be,” Haren said. “I’m definitely ready for the real thing. It’s been kind of hard to get the adrenaline going, and now it is going to be the opposite—keeping it under control.”

He is working to refine his cut fastball, which he began throwing last season.

“It’s been good, helps me give the hitters a different look,” Haren said.