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Thursday, May 20
PNC Park
Attendance: 13,975
Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Adam Stern's RBI groundout in the fourth inning proved to be the difference, as Milwaukee rallied from an early three- run deficit to beat the Pirates, 4-3, and put the brakes on a nine-game skid in the process.
Corey Hart, George Kottaras and Gregg Zaun each drove in a run for Milwaukee, which won for the first time since May 9 at Arizona. The Brewers avoided the franchise's ninth losing streak of at least 10 games.
"That was just such a big lift out of the bullpen by (John) Axford," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "I'm going to say at least four of those games, we put an outing like that, we win the game."
Chris Narveson (4-1) went six innings in the start, allowing three runs on seven hits for Milwaukee, which lost 6-4 in the opener of this brief two-game set. Carlos Villanueva picked up his first save of the season.
Steve Pearce knocked in two runs for the Pirates, who had won four of six coming into Thursday. Andy LaRoche drove in the other run in defeat.
Paul Maholm (3-4) lasted seven frames, giving up four runs on four hits. He also fanned a season-high seven batters and walked three in the loss.
"Our guys never give up. We expect to fight to the end no matter what the score is," Maholm said.
The Pirates put a three-spot on the board in the first inning. With runners on the corners and two outs, Pearce cleared the bases with a triple to left. LaRoche followed with an RBI double to right-center field.
Milwaukee got two runs back in the second. Casey McGehee worked a one-out walk and crossed the plate on Hart's triple off the wall in center. Zaun then grounded out to second to bring home Hart.
The Brewers added two more runs in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead. McGehee singled and Hart walked with one down. Kottaras followed with an RBI double to right, and Stern then grounded out to score another run.
Baserunning mistakes haunted Pittsburgh in the fifth. Lastings Milledge led off with a double and was caught in a rundown when Bobby Crosby hit a grounder to Narveson. Crosby advanced to second as Milledge was tagged out. Andrew McCutchen then hit a grounder to shortstop Alcides Escobar, who threw Crosby out at third. Garrett Jones grounded out to second to end the frame.
Milwaukee's John Axford tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth before Villanueva closed the game out in the ninth.
James Hoye
Wally Bell
Laz Diaz