Milwaukee — Rafael Soriano returned to the mound Thursday for the first time since the second week of the season, and all went well with his right elbow.

Soriano threw a scoreless ninth inning in the 8-1 win over the Brewers and said afterward he felt "all right." He got the results to back it up. He retired three of the four batters he faced and struck out one.

"Soriano threw the ball well, so we're happy about that," manager Bobby Cox said.

The lone exception was a walk to Russell Branyan. He threw a wild pitch to J.J. Hardy on a breaking ball outside but got him to ground out. He stranded Branyan at third on a flyout by Jason Kendall.

Of his 18 pitches, 11 were strikes. He worked his fastball up to 94 mph and mixed in some sliders.

"It was good for the one time I've thrown," Soriano said. "I'm going to be all right. I'm not worried about that right now because I know I've got my fastball. Sometimes it takes a while to come back [at] 97, 98. Right now to come back and throw 94, 92, I'll be all right.

Diaz out 4-6 weeks

Matt Diaz will be out four to six weeks with the confirmation Thursday that he has a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

After an MRI on Thursday in Atlanta, Diaz learned that no surgery is required, just rest and rehabilitation.

Diaz injured his knee crashing into chain link and concrete at the base of the outfield fence at Miller Park on Tuesday night, trying to catch a foul ball off the bat of Prince Fielder. He also cut his knee, needing four stitches.

Diaz had been struggling at the plate, just breaking up an 0-for-12 stretch on Tuesday night, and was hitting .250 on the season. Gregor Blanco, the other half of Diaz's left-field platoon, has played the past three games in center field while Mark Kotsay nurses a sore back.

Kotsay has been improving each day and could be back in action this weekend in Cincinnati. Cox played Omar Infante in left field on Wednesday and Greg Norton on Thursday.