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Playoff-hopeful Brewers face tough test in Braves' Hudson

The Milwaukee Brewers will try to avoid falling further back in the National League Central race tonight, when they continue a four- game series with the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.

Chipper Jones knocked in a pair of runs and former Brewer Jeff Bennett pitched into the sixth inning in his first major league start as Atlanta edged Milwaukee, 3-1, on Thursday.

Bennett (1-0), making his first appearance in the majors since October 3, 2004, gave up just one run on six hits with eight strikeouts and a walk for the Braves, who have won five in a row to move 4 1/2 games behind the Mets for first place in the NL East with nine games left to play.

Atlanta's bullpen came through for Bennett, pitching 3 1/3 innings of hitless relief, with Rafael Soriano tossing a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his eighth save of the season.

Rickie Weeks homered for the Brewers, who have lost two straight and fell 1 1/2 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the NL Central lead. The Cubs were idle on Thursday.

NL MVP candidate Prince Fielder saw his 17-game hitting streak come to an end after going 0-for-3 for Milwaukee. Brewers Jeff Suppan (10-12) was the hard- luck loser after giving up seven hits and three runs over six innings.

Carlos Villanueva will make his fifth start of the season for Milwaukee tonight. Villanueva last started on Sunday against the Reds and earned the win after throwing seven shutout innings, working around six hits and three walks. The victory improved him to 8-4 with a 4.11 earned run average in 56 games this year.

Coming out of the bullpen, the right-hander faced the Braves for the first time in his career on May 29, yielding a run and two hits in one-third of an inning.

The Braves send Tim Hudson to the hill tonight, and the right-hander threw his first shutout of the season and 10th of his career last time out. That came on Sunday against Washington, as Hudson held the National to seven hits to run his season record to 16-8 with a 3.33 ERA.

The right-hander, whose career high for wins in a season is 20 -- set in 2000 while with Oakland -- is 2-1 with a 3.34 ERA in four career starts versus Milwaukee.

These teams played a three-game series at Miller Park in May, with the Braves winning two of those tests. The Brewers also lost two of three games to Atlanta at Turner Field last season.

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