Brewers 9, Diamondbacks 5: Nelson, Santana star

That five-game losing streak?

It's already a distant memory for the Milwaukee Brewers, who save for a late hiccup by the bullpen put together a second consecutive inspired performance on Sunday afternoon at Miller Park.

Jimmy Nelson struck out 10 over seven innings in his strongest start of the season and Domingo Santana hit his first career grand slam in the fourth as the Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-5.

Nelson's outing came on the heels of Chase Anderson's flirtation with a no-hitter on Saturday while every starter other than Hernán Pérez collected a hit for the Brewers, who earned a series split with the Diamondbacks.

Milwaukee heads out on its four-game trip against the New York Mets once again leading the National League Central at 27-23.

"We’re not surprised with ourselves," Nelson said. "We knew what we had in spring training. The energy’s really good and honestly, as long as we keep this energy and attitude, we can surprise a lot of people."

Coming off a loss his last time out, Nelson had his good stuff going early as he racked up seven strikeouts through the first four innings. Arizona got to the right-hander for five hits over that span, but the first four didn't leave the infield.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 9, Diamondbacks 5

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The Brewers grabbed a quick 2-0 lead against Diamondbacks left-hander Patrick Corbin, who surrendered a triple and a pair of walks to start with Pérez driving in the first run with a groundout and Manny Piña the second with a double.

Chris Iannetta's fourth-inning RBI double pulled Arizona within 2-1. Then singles by Jonathan Villar and Orlando Arcia and a walk by Broxton loaded the bases for Santana, who sent a long drive out to right-center to break the game open.

It was the first grand slam of Santana's career and the first of the season for the Brewers.

"Just trying to put a good swing to just kind of see the ball as deep as I can," said Santana, who's hitting .333 with four doubles, two homers, 15 RBI and 13 walks in 23 games this month.

"I’m trying to stay out of the shortstop, just trying to keep it in the middle the other way, not trying to swing at the inside pitch as much. That’s where I need discipline."

Milwaukee tacked on insurance runs in the fifth and sixth to stretch its lead to 8-1. Nelson faced just one over the minimum over his final three innings, and after fanning T.J. McFarland to close out the seventh received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 41,698 on Robin Yount bobblehead day.

Nelson (3-3) fell one shy of matching his career high for strikeouts. And with Anderson fanning 11 on Saturday, the Brewers had pitchers register double-digit strikeouts in consecutive games for the first time since Marco Estrada and Mike Fiers accomplished the feat against the Houston Astros on Sept. 29-30, 2012.

"I think we talked about the starting pitching at some point in stretches in the season being the part that carried us," said manager Craig Counsell. "Really, the last three nights, even if you go back to Zach (Davies), we've gotten quality starting pitching. Certainly,

"Jimmy was excellent today."

Arizona made things interesting by scoring four times in the eighth against Oliver Drake and Carlos Torres. It also had pinch-hitter Paul Goldschmidt up with a runner on third and two outs, but Jacob Barnes induced a flyout to end the threat.

Santana doubled and scored on a Travis Shaw double in the eighth to cap the scoring for Milwaukee. He was one of six Brewers players with two or more hits on the day.

Barnes fired a scoreless ninth to earn his second save of the season.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE

• Ryan Cordell has been flashing his versatility at Class AAA Colorado Springs this season.

An outfielder by trade, Cordell has also manned third base nine times for the Sky Sox. There's a wealth of outfield depth there with top prospect Lewis Brinson, Brett Phillips, Kyle Wren and Kirk Nieuwenhuis all on the roster and Cordell has played in the infield before when he was in Texas' minor-league system, so moving him around makes sense.

"Despite the depth in the outfield, we had hoped to be able to get him on the infield at times this season," farm director Tom Flanagan said of Cordell, who was hitting .308 with six homers and 28 RBI with a .909 OPS through 40 games.

"He has put in a lot of hard work taking ground balls and working at third base. He is a premium athlete, so it’s a credit to him to be able to add another dimension to his versatility."

• Shortstop Gilbert Lara was moved off Class A Wisconsin's roster due to minor hand soreness and to give him some time to work on some mechanical adjustments to his batting stance.

Lara, a huge international signing for the Brewers back in 2014 when he received $3.1 million as a 16-year-old, is hitting .154 with three homers and nine RBI in 34 games for the Timber Rattlers so far this season.

STAT SHEET

• Santana's grand slam was the Brewers' first since Chris Carter hit one last Sept. 17 against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field and the first hit by a Brewers player at MIller Park since Ryan Braun on Aug. 16, 2015 against the Philadelphia Phillies.

• Manny Piña, playing for the first time since being hit in the elbow on Thursday, recorded his third three-hit game of the season.

TAKEAWAY

The Brewers have answered their season-high five-game losing streak in great fashion. Sunday saw a terrific pitching performance by Nelson and a productive offense from top to bottom. Although they finished their home stand with a 2-4 record, at least they head to New York on an upswing.

RECORD

This year: 27-23 (14-15 home; 13-8 away)

Last year: 23-27

ATTENDANCE

Sunday: 41,698 (third sellout).

2017 total: 833,826 (28,753 avg.)

Last year: 810,727 (27,956 avg.)

NEXT GAME

Monday: Brewers at Mets, 3:10 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Matt Garza (2-1, 3.60) vs. New York RHP Robert Gsellman (2-3, 6.45). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.