Pirates Rally Falls Short As Brewers Complete 3-Game Sweep
MILWAUKEE (KDKA/AP) -- For a brief second on Sunday, it appeared the Pirates had forgotten about all their troubles against the Milwaukee Brewers.
But the moment once again proved to be short-lived as Brewers star Ryan Braun helped his team finish a three-game sweep of the Bucs with a 9-6 win.
The Pirates have now lost five in a row overall. The Brewers have won 33 of 36 against the Pirates at Miller Park since 2007.
Braun homered, tripled and drove in four runs for Milwaukee. Casey McGehee and Jonathan Lucroy also hit home runs.
Zack Greinke (2-1) was flawless for the first four innings. However, he gave up five runs in the fifth as the Pirates pulled to 6-5, and left after the inning.
Greinke was making his third start for the Brewers after missing more than a month because of a broken rib.
Kevin Correia (5-4) struggled in his attempt to become the first Pirates pitcher to win six games by mid-May since 1991, when Neal Heaton started 6-0 and Doug Drabek was 6-1.
Correia came in 5-0 with a 1.56 ERA in five road starts this season.
The Brewers scored four runs in the first 12 pitches of the game, as Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez singled and Braun followed with his home run.
Two batters later, Casey McGehee hit a deep, high fly. The ball just cleared the 400-foot sign and Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen lost his glove over the wall while leaping trying to catch it. A Brewers employee retrieved the glove from behind the wall and flipped it back to him.
Braun made it 5-0 in the second with a two-out triple past McCutchen. McGehee doubled to lead off the third and scored on Lucroy's two-out double.
Then, the Pirates put together a rally for five runs in the fifth.
Neil Walker led off with a homer, capping an impressive 12-pitch at-bat. Then with two outs, the Pirates got five straight hits. Chris Snyder, Ronny Cedeno and Steve Pearce all doubled, McCutchen tripled and Jose Tabata singled to make it 6-5.
Lucroy made it 8-5 in the fifth with two-run homer. McGehee reached on a two-base error by third baseman Pedro Alvarez and scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-5 in the seventh.
The Pirates made it interesting in the ninth with a run on three straight singles by Alvarez, Brandon Wood and Cedeno off Brewers closer John Axford.
But shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt robbed Ryan Doumit of a single up the middle, turning a grounder into an out, and Tabata grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to end it.
Up next, the Pirates stay on the road with two games against the Washington Nationals starting Monday at 7:05 p.m.
RELATED LINKS:
Pittsburgh Pirates
Milwaukee Brewers
More Pirates News
More Sports News
