Ryan Braun produced a tiebreaking single in the fourth inning and the Milwaukee Brewers continued their success over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday afternoon with a 5-3 victory.
The Brewers moved to a season-high nine games over .500, won for the eighth time in 12 games and improved to 5-1 against the Pirates on a day in which they stranded 13 and went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Braun, who hit a three-run homer in Friday's 10-4 win, snapped a 3-3 tie when he lined a single to center field off Michael Feliz (2-2) to score Lorenzo Cain.
Mike Moustakas homered, Orlando Arcia had an RBI double and Cain produced a run-scoring single for the Brewers.
Pinch hitter Manny Pina added insurance with a homer in the eighth for Milwaukee, which has scored 47 runs and hit 16 of its 112 homers against Pittsburgh.
Colin Moran hit a two-run homer for the Pirates, who fell to 6-13 in their past 19 games. Josh Bell hit a sacrifice fly for his 57th RBI and rookie Bryan Reynolds extended his hitting streak to 16 games.
Milwaukee's Zach Davies (7-0) gritted his way through five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. He struck out three, walked one, threw 101 pitches in an outing when he fell behind 12 of the 22 hitters he faced.
Alex Claudio pitched a hitless sixth, Junior Guerra worked around a single and a wild pitch in a scoreless seventh and Jeremy Jeffress breezed through a perfect eighth. Josh Hader struck out the side in the ninth for his 15th save in 16 chances.
For the second straight game, the Pirates received a short outing from their starting pitcher.
After Rookie Davis went three innings Friday, Jordan Lyles labored through three innings, allowing three runs on five hits. Lyles struck out five, walked four and threw at least five pitches to 11 of the 18 hitters he faced.
The Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the second when Moran hit his ninth homer, but the Brewers tied it in the bottom half when Arcia doubled, stole third and scored on Cain's single.
Pittsburgh took its second lead on Bell's fly ball to left in the third, but Moustakas opened the bottom half of the inning with his 19th homer to forge a 3-3 tie.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | Milwaukee | |
Jordan Lyles | Player | Zach Davies |
No Decision | W/L | Win |
3.0 | IP | 5.0 |
5 | Strikeouts | 3 |
5 | Hits | 7 |
9.00 | ERA | 5.40 |
Pittsburgh | Milwaukee | |
Adam Frazier | Player | Mike Moustakas |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 1 |
3 | TB | 5 |
.500 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 8 | 1 | 12 | .242 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Milwaukee | 10 | 2 | 19 | .303 | 24 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 1 |