DENVER (AP) – Victor Santos earned his second win in 14 starts, and Wes Helms homered and drove in two runs to help the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 6-4 Tuesday night.

Rickie Weeks also homered and the Brewers roughed up Jeff Francis (11-9) to win for the second time in nine games. Milwaukee has won seven of eight against Colorado dating to last year.

Matt Holliday had two hits and drove in a run, boosting his average to .359 in 27 games since coming off the disabled list with a broken pinkie on July 19. Colorado had nine hits after getting 17 in an 11-2 win the night before.

Santos (4-11) allowed a run in the first inning on Holliday’s RBI single and another in the fourth on a single by Dustan Mohr that cut Milwaukee’s lead to 4-2. Omar Quintanilla chased the right-hander in the sixth, blooping an RBI single just out of the reach of shortstop Bill Hall to make it 5-3.

Santos allowed six hits in 5 2-3 innings, just good enough for his first win since July 23 against Cincinnati. All four of his wins have come at night and three have been on the road.

Derrick Turnbow pitched the ninth for his 25th save in 28 chances. He allowed an RBI single to Todd Helton before striking out Holliday and retiring Garrett Atkins on a grounder to end it.

Francis had his second straight shaky start following a three-game winning streak.

He gave up a run in the first inning on a single by Carlos Lee, who ended an 0-for-11 slump, and Santos hit a hard single in the third, his third hit in 36 at-bats this season.

The Brewers got three more runs off the left-hander in the fourth inning on an RBI double by Geoff Jenkins, Hall’s run-scoring single and Helms’ fourth homer, a solo shot to left that put Milwaukee up 4-1.

Francis was pulled with one out in the sixth after hitting Jenkins with a pitch and giving up a hard single to Hall. Helms followed with an RBI single off Sun-Woo Kim to put the Brewers up 5-2.

Francis allowed five runs and seven hits after giving up nine runs and 13 hits in 3 1-3 innings Thursday in a loss to Pittsburgh.

Weeks hit his 10th homer in the seventh, a solo shot to right-center off Kim that put Milwaukee up 6-3.

Notes: Brewers manager Ned Yost was ejected in the top of the fifth for arguing with plate umpire Bill Miller after Francis plunked Jenkins. … Both teams took batting practice indoors due to rain. … Santos plunked Danny Ardoin on the top of the helmet in the fifth, and the ball caromed over the screen and about 10 rows into the stands. Ardoin wasn’t hurt.

AP-ES-08-17-05 0009EDT


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