MILWAUKEE (AP) – Doug Davis won his third straight decision, leading the Milwaukee Brewers over Chicago 8-6 Thursday and handing the Cubs consecutive losses for the first time in nearly three weeks.

Davis (8-6) was given a seven-run lead, and he struck out eight in seven innings, allowing four runs, eight hits and three walks. He improved to 3-0 in his last four starts despite a 6.09 ERA, and got out of trouble in the third when he struck out Phil Nevin and Jacque Jones with the bases loaded.

Francisco Cordero worked the ninth for his fifth save in as many chances since Milwaukee acquired him from Texas on July 28.

Mark Prior (1-6) gave up six runs – five earned – and four hits in three innings, and all four batters he walked scored. He is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA since July 21, when he came off the disabled list after recovering from a strained left oblique muscle.

Prior has walked 28 and hit eight in 43 2-3 innings this season and has not pitched past the sixth.

Aramis Ramirez drove in three runs for the Cubs with a sacrifice fly in the first and his 27th homer. a two-run drive in the fifth. He has 11 homers in 26 games since the All-Star break.

Chicago had not lost consecutive games since being swept by Washington in a three-game series July 21-23.

Milwaukee loaded the bases in the first on two walks around Jeff Cirillo’s bloop single. Prior knocked down Kevin Mench with an inside pitch, and Mench followed with a two-run single off the wall in left.

Rookie Angel Pagan, making his 12th start in left, made a throwing error that allowed the runners to advance, Gabe Gross hit a sacrifice fly, Tony Graffanino was hit by a pitch and David Bell added another sacrifice fly.

Bell and Rivera hit RBI singles in the third following two more walks by Prior, and Graffanino had a two-run single in the fourth off Juan Mateo that made it 8-1. Mateo had been scheduled to start Saturday at Colorado.

Nevin had an RBI single in the seventh, and Henry Blanco hit a two-run homer in the eighth against Jose Capellan.

Chicago’s Will Ohman hit Prince Fielder in the back with a pitch in the sixth, and Fielder glared at Ohman before going to first. Davis knocked down Nevin in the seventh.

During Wednesday’s 6-3 victory over the Cubs, Milwaukee’s Dave Bush hit Michael Barrett and Ramirez.

Notes: CF Brady Clark’s fielding error in the seventh snapped the Brewers’ string of 11 consecutive errorless games, which tied the franchise record set in 1979. … Chicago’s Ryan Theriot went 3-for-3.