MILWAUKEE – Dan Haren struck out 11 to win his third straight start and Justin Upton hit a homer to lift the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1 on Saturday night.

With Diamondbacks ace Brandon Webb sidelined with a nagging shoulder strain, Haren (3-3) has picked up the slack and Arizona is beginning to hit, winning five of the last seven.

With Haren, the Diamondbacks know they don’t need to score much. He scattered one run off four hits over eight innings and has given up three runs over his last three starts to lower his ERA to 1.47. Chad Qualls pitched around a one-out double in the ninth for his sixth save.

Brewers starter Braden Looper has been strong himself since signing a free-agent deal to join Milwaukee in the offseason, but one inning cost him against Haren.

Looper (2-1) retired the first 12 batters he faced, but gave up three straight hits to start the fifth inning to the Diamondbacks, who came in hitting .231 as a team, worst in the majors.

Mark Reynolds doubled to the gap in right-center field, Upton laid down a bunt and ran past the tag of first baseman Prince Fielder and Conor Jackson’s RBI single scored Reynolds.

Eric Byrnes’ fielder’s choice put runners back on the corners with one out and Chris Snyder’s two-run double stuck in the base of the left field wall to give Arizona a 3-0 lead.

Upton, hitting .387 over his last nine games with three homers and 10 RBIs, homered to deep left field to give Arizona a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning, Looper’s last. The drive landed just left of Bernie Brewers’ landing terrace, an estimated 450 feet.

That was plenty for Haren, who hasn’t given up more than two runs in any of his six starts and allowed only two baserunners to reach scoring position. He could easily be 6-0 this season, but received just one run in support over his first three outings.

The right-hander got out of a first and third jam in the third inning before allowing a leadoff double to Rickie Weeks in the sixth and a two-out RBI single to Fielder that made it 3-1.

The Brewers, who’ve hit 29 homers this season, failed to hit one for the third straight game and didn’t make much solid contact against Haren, who reached at least 10 strikeouts for the sixth time in his career and second this season.

Notes: The sellout crowd gave third base umpire CB Bucknor a mock cheer in the fifth inning for calling Felipe Lopez’s fly ball down the left-field line foul. The night prior, third base umpire Brian Gorman ruled that Tony Clark’s drive barely nicked the line and ended up being a two-run double in Arizona’s 5-2 win. … Brewers LF Ryan Braun missed the game with a stiff back that began acting up in Friday’s game. … Brewers SS J.J. Hardy had a second day off while mired in a 1-for-20 skid.

AP-ES-05-02-09 2141EDT