Brewers 12, Pirates 8: Rickie Weeks ended a long dry spell with three hits – including a three-run homer – and drove in a career-high five runs as host Milwaukee defeated Pittsburgh for the ninth consecutive time.
Weeks recorded his first home run and multi-hit game since April 3 and scored three times for the Brewers, who also saw Jean Segura and Yuniesky Betancourt each go deep for the second straight game. Tom Gorzelanny (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh for his first victory with Milwaukee.
Andrew McCutchen went 4-for-5 and ended his 15-game homerless drought with a fifth-inning solo shot while Starling Marte had three RBIs and posted his 12th multi-hit game of the month, including a three-run homer. Bryan Morris (0-1) took the loss after yielding Betancourt’s homer to lead off the seventh.
Milwaukee was poised to run away with it early as the Brewers broke open a tie game with Carlos Gomez’s third-inning RBI double. They followed it up with three more runs in the fourth when Jonathan Lucroy’s run-scoring double and Weeks’ two-run single stretched the advantage to 7-3.
Russell Martin and McCutchen hit back-to-back home runs to trim the deficit in half in the fifth before Marte’s three-run shot in the sixth gave Pittsburgh a short-lived 8-7 lead. Segura and Betancourt each went deep in the sixth and seventh, respectively, before Weeks sealed it with his second homer of the season.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Milwaukee starter Marco Estrada entered Tuesday with a 3-0 record and 1.43 ERA in 37 2/3 career innings against Pittsburgh, but was roughed up for five runs and seven hits over five frames. … McCutchen, who extended his hitting streak at Miller Park to 10 games, is batting 20-for-42 with five homers and 13 RBIs over that stretch. ... The Brewers improved to 46-7 at Miller Park against the Pirates since the start of 2007 - the best home record by any team against a division opponent in that time.
Pittsburgh | Milwaukee | |
James McDonald | Player | Marco Estrada |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 5.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 6 |
8 | Hits | 7 |
12.60 | ERA | 9.00 |
Pittsburgh | Milwaukee | |
Andrew McCutchen | Player | Rickie Weeks |
4 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 5 |
1 | HR | 1 |
7 | TB | 7 |
.800 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 14 | 4 | 27 | .350 | 18 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Milwaukee | 15 | 3 | 28 | .417 | 17 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 0 |