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Vicious cycle: While Cuddyer makes history, Parra goes back to struggling ways

MINNEAPOLIS — Manny Parra had started to turn around his season and pitched as well this month as anyone else in the rotation.

He was gaining confidence and becoming a consistent cog in the quality-start machine the Milwaukee Brewers had been running on over the past month.

The lone left-hander in the rotation, Parra had gone 3-0 with a 3.00 earned run average in May and had won his last three decisions after starting the season with four consecutive losses.

Parra was rolling.

Until he faced the Minnesota Twins.

They scored more runs off Parra in less than four innings than he had given up all month and the Brewers never had a chance, losing, 11-3, Friday night at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome to kick off interleague play.

That offensive outburst came a day after the Twins tagged the Chicago White Sox for 20 runs.

Minnesota right-hander Kevin Slowey continued to baffle Brewers hitters, and offensively, you don't put up that many runs without reaching some kind of feat. Michael Cuddyer provided that, needing just four plate appearances to become the 10th Twins player ever to hit for the cycle. He also drove in five runs.

''Well, we held them to 11," Brewers manager Ken Macha joked. "For Manny, he kinda ran into a buzz saw there."

Parra's R-rated line was 3 1/3 innings, nine runs, eight earned, eight hits and three walks.

As a contrast, Parra had allowed eight runs in 24 innings in his four previous May starts.

Command of all his pitches was sporadic and when he missed, he missed down the heart of the plate.

''This is the ugliest one of them all," said Parra, who has let negative emotions seep into his psyche in the past. "If there was ever a time to have amnesia it's right now. That's something I'm learning to do.

''We have a routine that we go through everyday, and I'm just going to continue to do the same things I've been doing."

The Twins got to Parra almost immediately after he climbed the mound.

They touched him for three runs in the first inning on Cuddyer's first hit, a three-run home run.

Parra walked Joe Mauer on four pitches and Justin Morneau reached on a bloop single. Three pitches later, Cuddyer crushed a belt-high changeup over the middle of the plate into the left-field seats.

A sacrifice fly by Mauer scored a run in the second, and Brendan Harris singled home Cuddyer, who doubled, in the third for a 5-0 buffer.

But with all the firepower the Brewers have and the fact that they are one of the best teams in the game at playing from behind, there wasn't much panic as they figured they were well equipped to come back.

The fourth inning changed that.

With runners on the corners and one out, Mauer hit a grounder to second baseman Casey McGehee, who moved there after J.J. Hardy left the game in the middle of the inning with mild back spasms and is day-to-day. McGehee made the throw to shortstop Craig Counsell, but he dropped it, allowing a run to score and both base runners to reach.

Morneau followed that with a two-run triple off the center-field wall on Parra's final pitch. Morneau later scored on a Cuddyer single.

Official scorers can't assume double plays, but fans can. And if Counsell catches that ball and makes the turn, Parra is out of the fourth inning and the Brewers are still within striking distance.

But a struggling pitcher can't be expected to get five outs in an inning without damage.

''Of course we need to make all the plays, but we're not (always) going to," Parra said. "In that situation, facing a lefty (Morneau), I make my pitch, I get him out. That pitch was right down the middle again."

Cuddyer completed his cycle with a broken-bat triple down the third-base line and into the corner. The hit drove in Morneau and made Cuddyer the second Twin this season to reach the accomplishment.

Slowey, who started the night 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA in three career starts against the Brewers, kept the visitors in check, retiring the first 10 batters he faced in order.

He consistently threw first-pitch strikes and showed confidence in his stuff by challenging hitters even when he was behind in the count, although his big lead likely had something to do with that.

The Brewers, who had scored less than four runs only once in their last nine games, didn't score until McGehee's sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Slowey finished with 7 1/3 innings, three runs, two earned, four strikeouts and no walks.