Stephen Drew Injury: Diamondbacks Shortstop Breaks Ankle, Brewers Beat Arizona 5-2 In 10 (VIDEO)
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PHOENIX — In just a couple of minutes, on consecutive plays, Arizona shortstop Stephen Drew broke his right ankle sliding into home plate and Milwaukee center fielder Carlos Gomez fractured his left collar bone making a diving catch.
The Milwaukee Brewers wound up winning 5-2 in 10 innings on Wednesday night, an outcome that probably won't mean a lot in a 162-game season. The impact of that ugly fourth-inning span will last far longer.
Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said Drew is lost for the season and probably needs surgery. Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said Gomez will be gone "maybe a couple of months."
For the Diamondbacks, the loss of the man who had been their starting shortstop since the middle of the 2006 season could be devastating.
"We know how important Stephen is but if you have been around the game for a while it happens," Gibson said. "It is fairly common that you are going to lose star players. You hope it doesn't happen to you. We now know what the Giants are feeling (with their loss of Buster Posey). We are in a similar situation and we need to find a way to get through it. Nothing we can do about it. We wish him well just hope he has a good recovery and he resumes his career next year."
After Drew was hurt, the Diamondbacks rallied with two runs off newly arrived reliever Francisco Rodriquez in the eighth to tie it but couldn't push the winning run across in the ninth after Justin Upton reached third with no outs, then the Brewers gave young reliever Ryan Cook a rude welcome to the big leagues with a three-run 10th inning.
"It was a tough night overall," Arizona starter Joe Saunders said.
Ryan Braun homered in the first inning for the second night in a row, then singled to bring in the second run in the 10th. Nyjer Morgan singled in the go-ahead run in the 10th, and Rickie Weeks had the third RBI hit of the inning.
What would have been another home run for Braun in the eighth was reversed when umpires viewed a replay and called it a foul ball.
Drew, the anchor of the Diamondbacks' defense, was hurt sliding into home plate in the fourth inning, pinning his right foot beneath him. He lay grimacing face-down, signaling for help from the dugout. He was assisted from the field, and the team announced a short time later that surgery was likely.
On the next play, Gomez made a terrific grab of Ryan Roberts' short flyball, but came up in obvious pain and was assisted off the field.
"It's a big loss for us," Roenicke said of the Gomez's injury. "If he doesn't make that catch, we probably don't win the game."
Milwaukee climbed into first in the NL Central, a half-game ahead of Pittsburgh. Arizona spoiled a chance to gain ground on first-place San Francisco in the NL West, remaining 3 1/2 behind the Giants.
Arizona tied the game in the eighth with a two-out, two-run double off Rodriguez by Willie Bloomquist, who shifted from left field to shortstop when Drew was hurt.
Cook (0-1), a top prospect with a fastball in the mid to upper 90s, faced four batters in the 10th without getting an out, giving up three hits, with one walk, a wild pitch and a balk. Takashi Saito (2-1) pitched a scoreless but eventful ninth to get the victory. John Axford threw a scoreless 10th for his 26th save in 28 tries.
Drew, hitless in his previous nine at-bats and in a 4-for-34 slump, led off the fourth with a double off the fence in right field, his 750th career base hit. After one out, Chris Young hit one down the left field line. Braun made an outstanding, short-hop stop, then threw to third baseman Casey McGehee, whose perfect relay to catcher Jonathan Lucroy got there just ahead of Drew.
"I wasn't really blocking (the plate)," Lucroy said. "I gave him room to slide. I had my foot in front of him, that was it. He just slid and it was just an unfortunate accident, kind of a freak thing."
The Diamondbacks had the winning run on third with no outs in the ninth and failed to get him home after the Brewers switched to an unusual defense.
Upton led off with a ground-rule double and took third on Saito's wild pitch. Then the Brewers brought Braun in as a fifth infielder, stationing him just to the third base side of second. Morgan shifted to left, leaving center field open. Young and Roberts both bounced out to third. Milwaukee went back to a conventional defense, intentionally walked Kelly Johnson, then pinch-hitter Sean Burroughs flew out to center to send the game into extra innings.
"The game was won in the bottom of the ninth with Saito," said Brewers starter Chris Narveson, who blanked the Diamondbacks through seven innings. "That was an unbelievable job for him to be able to get out of that. We were able to build some momentum off of it and come back and win."
NOTES: Arizona RHP Barry Enright, called up on Tuesday, was sent back to Triple-A Reno on Wednesday after his disastrous Tuesday night start, when he allowed six runs on seven hits in three innings in an 11-3 Diamondbacks loss. ... Milwaukee and Arizona rank 1-2 in homers in the NL, the Brewers with 112, the Diamondbacks 108. ... Young is the only Arizona player to appear in every game this season; 1B Prince Fielder is the lone Brewer to play in every contest. .... Temperature outside at game time was 107 degrees, inside Chase Field it was 80.
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BOB BAUM 07/21/11 03:30 AM ET Associated Press