Brewers give plenty of support in Gallardo's gem

MIAMI -- Yovani Gallardo made history on his way to earning his fifth win of the season.

Gallardo picked up his 1,000th career strikeout as the Brewers beat the Marlins, 6-1, Monday night before 13,259 fans at Marlins Park.

"Yovani had great command on all his pitches and good life on all his pitches," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "His fastball command was really what he needed today, and then he mixes in the other stuff. Another good outing from him."

The right-hander shut out the Marlins, holding them to four hits over a season-high eight innings. Gallardo punched out four, and his final strikeout was monumental. He fanned Marcell Ozuna in the seventh to pick up his 1,000th career strikeout and join Teddy Higuera and Ben Sheets as the other Brewers to reach that milestone.

"I think it's always something special to achieve things like that," Gallardo said. "Getting 1,000 strikeouts is a big number. It's a lot of work and a lot of pitches thrown. It's one of the goals and hopefully you keep moving forward to get to the next one."

Gallardo gave the Brewers their second consecutive excellent start of the season. Before Kyle Lohse on Sunday, no Brewers starter had pitched into the eighth inning all year. Now Gallardo has made it two in a row.

"We feed off each other," Gallardo said. "We all want to do well, and seeing the other guy do well gives you that extra motivation to go out there and make pitches."

While Gallardo was the star on the mound, Carlos Gomez was one of several Brewers who shined at the plate.

Gomez and the Milwaukee offense wasted little time getting to Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco. Norichika Aoki, who reached base four times Monday, led off the game with a double to right and scored on Gomez's one-out RBI single to left.

"Nori has been pretty much that way all year," Roenicke said. "He has a couple of games where he gets a little off, but he is always getting hits and always out there for the other guys, and Gomez continues to do a good job for us. Those guys at the top are really doing a great job."

Gomez, who ended up on third thanks to a throwing error by Marlins catcher Rob Brantly, scored on Jonathan Lucroy's two-out single to center, giving Gallardo a two-run lead before he threw his first pitch.

An inning later, Gomez hit a soft liner to shallow center that allowed Aoki to score from second. The 27-year-old added a triple in the seventh.

"It's easier when you have the runs early in the game, especially in the first inning," Gomez said. "Guys have a good feeling for the rest of the game to continue to do a good job."

Rickie Weeks, who made several impressive plays defensively, added another run when he hit a solo homer with two outs in the third. That was all the damage Milwaukee would do against Nolasco, who allowed four runs on a season-high 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings.

"He's been good making the defensive plays he is making and also swinging the bat," Roenicke said of Weeks. "That is a huge pickup and hopefully this continues. He's working hard at it and trying to stick with it. He's been doing a good job."

Milwaukee added two more runs in the seventh thanks to another RBI single from Lucroy, who had four hits on the night, and a sacrifice fly from Juan Francisco.

The Marlins snapped the shutout in the ninth against reliever Donovan Hand. Juan Pierre tripled and later scored on an Ed Lucas groundout.

But Hand struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the game and give the Brewers their sixth win of June, tying their total from last month, when they went a franchise-worst 6-22.