PITTSBURGH -- Sitting through two rain delays on a soggy evening turned out to be worth it for Jimmy Nelson and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Nelson pitched six strong innings and combined with three relievers on a five-hit shutout as the Brewers blanked the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 Monday.

"We knew going in it was going to be one of those nights where, as they said, rain all night," Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. "We were just going to be playing through it."

Nelson (3-6) gave up four hits as he won for just the second time in his past 11 starts. The right-hander struck out six and walked three after giving up 11 runs in 11 innings over his previous two starts.

"It was a long one," Nelson said. "Those ones it's definitely a lot nicer to come out with that win."

Two of Nelson's three victories this season came against the Pirates.

Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said his team's game plan was to get Nelson to make mistakes with his sinker, but that rarely happened.

"The pitches to these guys looked like they were up (in the strike zone) out of his hand, but there was just so much late action on (the sinker) that we weren't able to do a whole lot with it," Hurdle said.

Milwaukee right-handers Jonathan Broxton, Jeremy Jeffress and Francisco Rodriguez pitched one inning each. Rodriguez notched his 11th save.

The final out was made at 12:28 a.m. ET as there were rain delays of 28 minutes in the bottom of the fourth inning and one hour, 45 minutes at the end of the seventh.

The Brewers scored their first run in the fifth when third baseman Aramis Ramirez led off with a single, moved to third on left fielder Gerardo Parra's double and scored on shortstop Jean Segura's groundout.

That came right after the first delay, but tough-luck losing pitcher A.J. Burnett (6-2) said the extra wait to get back on the mound wasn't responsible.

"I felt good the whole time," he said. "Parra's double was a big hit. They scored on a ground ball, and that's pretty much it. The rain didn't affect me at all."

Right fielder Ryan Braun singled home the Brewers' other run in the eighth.

Braun, Ramirez and Parra each had two of the eight hits for the Brewers (21-37), who won for the third time in four games.

Burnett allowed only one run, five hits and one walk in seven innings while striking out six. He won each of his previous six starts overall, but he dropped to 2-7 lifetime against the Brewers, including 0-4 in his past five starts against them.

Second baseman Neil Walker had three hits, including a double, for the Pirates (31-26), who lost for just the second time in seven games. They had also won four games in a row against the Brewers.

The Pirates put runners on second and third with one out in the third and runners on first and third with no outs in the fifth, but Nelson escaped the jams both times.

"We'd get in jams and Jimmy would just get better," Counsell said. "He took control of those situations. You could see from the start he had good movement on his pitches and he was going to have a good night."

NOTES: Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen got the night off after feeling pain in his left knee following his last plate appearance Sunday in Atlanta. Manager Clint Hurdle said he had planned on giving McCutchen a day off during the recently completed 10-game road trip, but the four-time All-Star wanted to keep playing because he was swinging the bat so well. ... Pittsburgh OF Gregory Polanco returned to the lineup and played left field after being limited to pinch-hitting duty Sunday because of a jammed left knee. ... The Brewers will call up RHP Taylor Jungmann from Triple-A Colorado Springs prior to Tuesday night's game, and he will make his major league debut, starting against Pirates LHP Francisco Liriano (3-4, 2.34). Milwaukee's first-round draft pick in 2011, J