PHOENIX — After scoring 16 runs in two games, the Milwaukee Brewers' fearsome offense fell silent against Arizona ace Ian Kennedy.
Not that the Brewers didn't have their chances in Thursday night's 4-0 loss. They were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
"You get disappointed when you think you are playing pretty good and you come out and get shut out," Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. "I am glad we won some games on the trip but when you think about this game, it's hard to be happy about what happened the last few days."
The Brewers split the four-game series and wrap up their 11-game trip with three at San Francisco over the weekend.
Prince Fielder, the All-Star game MVP on the same field nine days earlier, went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Still booed heartily by the Arizona fans who won't forgive him for leaving Justin Upton off the Home Run Derby team, Fielder was 1 for 16 in the series.
"He has been good so long that when he has two or three off games, a little of you is like 'What is wrong with Prince?'" Roenicke said. "This is what every single hitter goes through."
Kennedy gave up four hits over seven innings to earn his 11th victory and the Diamondbacks got home runs from Upton, Miguel Montero and Kelly Johnson.
Kennedy (11-3) struck out five and walked two in his third straight win.
"He has a little deception in his delivery," Roenicke said, "kind of throws a little across his body. He spots his fastball outstanding and is not afraid to pitch inside. He mixes a nice slider, a few curveballs, so he gets creative out there."
Kennedy became the eighth pitcher in the NL with at least 11 wins. Jair Jurrjens of Atlanta leads the league with 12.
Zach Greinke (7-4) struck out seven with no walks in seven innings, allowing only five hits, but two of them were solo shots by Upton and Montero in the fourth inning.
Johnson added a two-run homer off LaTroy Hawkins in the eighth, his team-high 17th of the season.
The victory came in the first game for the Diamondbacks since they lost shortstop Stephen Drew for the season with a broken right ankle. He underwent surgery on Thursday.
Bryan Shaw and Ian Patterson pitched the eighth for Arizona, then David Hernandez completed the shutout in the ninth.
Upton's 16th home run, on a 3-0 count, landed in the walkway far above the 413-foot sign in left-center. With two outs, Montero's opposite-field shot made it to the fence in left, his 11th homer, to put Arizona up 2-0.
"The two home run pitches, 3-0 to Upton I just threw one over the middle and hoped it would be an out, single or even a double," Greinke said. "He hit it well. Three-0 home runs are like, whatever. The other one it was a horrible pitch to Montero. With Upton you are playing with fire on a 3-0 pitch and Montero, I was a lot more upset about that one. I just did not execute the pitch."
The Brewers fell into a virtual first-place tie with idle Pittsburgh in the NL Central. The Diamondbacks picked up a half-game on idle San Francisco and trail the first-place Giants by four games in the NL West.
Kennedy escaped a jam in the fifth when Yuniesky Betancourt and Jonathan Lucroy singled with two outs. Greinke's sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third. Corey Hart walked to load the bases, but Nyjer Morgan flied out to center to end the threat.
Other than that, it was smooth sailing for Arizona's 26-year-old right-hander, who improved to 33-32 since coming to Arizona in a three-team trade in December 2009. Kennedy threw 114 pitches. He has topped 100 in all but one of his 21 starts this season.
Shaw relieved Kennedy and immediately got in trouble. Hart led off with a single, then Morgan was hit by a pitch. But Ryan Braun, who had doubled to lead off the sixth, grounded into a double play. Patterson, a lefty, came on to fan Prince Fielder on three pitches, the Brewers slugger's third strikeout.
Notes: The Diamondbacks called up former major league SS Cody Ransom from Triple-A Reno to help fill the void left by the season-ending injury to Drew. ... The Brewers selected the contract of OF Brett Carroll from Triple-A Nashville to take the roster spot of OF Carlos Gomez, who is on the DL after breaking his left collarbone Wednesday night. ... Kennedy is 4-1 in his last six starts. ... Arizona's Daniel Hudson tries to join Kennedy as an 11-game winner when the Diamondbacks open a three-game home series against Colorado on Friday night.