The Buccos are now 12 games out of first place, it seemed like they were just in first place and the whole city had baseball fever. What is it about Milwaukee? They just cannot win in that place. No offense again, lots of standing ovations by the Brewers crowd again, it's all getting so tired. Rob Biertempfel has more:
Yunieksky Betancourt's solo home run in the second inning Saturday was enough for the Milwaukee Brewers to slip past the Pirates, 1-0.
Betancourt mashed an 0-2 pitch from right-hander Kevin Correia into the middle-tier of left field seats.
It was the ninth homer of the season for Betancourt. He's having a huge second half, batting .380 with 21 RBI over his past 24 games.
Correia (12-11) has lost five of his past six decisions, but deserved a better fate today. He worked 6 2/3 innings and yielded one run on seven hits, walked three and struck out three.
The Pirates' offense gave Correia no chance to win, mustering only two singles.
The Pirates were handcuffed for the first five innings by journeyman Marco Estrada (3-7). The right-hander gave up one hit – a one-out single by Ronny Cedeno in the third – and got five strikeouts.
Estrada was a fill-in for lefty Chris Narveson, who went on the disabled list after slicing open his thumb while repairing his glove with scissors. Estrada, 28, has made 33 appearances this season, all but five of them as a reliever.
In six previous starts over his four-year career, Estrada went 1-2 with a 6.37 ERA. He wasn't much better as a reliever, going 1-6 with a 5.61 ERA.
None of that mattered, though. Estrada rolled through five innings on 64 pitches and got six ground-ball outs. The Pirates hit just three balls out of the infield against him.
Milwaukee's bullpen took over in the sixth. Takashi Saito and LaTroy Hawkins each tossed a 1-2-3 inning.
The Brewers loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh. But reliever Chris Resop escaped by getting Casey McGehee to take a called third strike. The Brewers went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
Ryan Ludwick began the eighth with a single to center off Francisco Rodriguez. But Ryan Doumit struck out, Pedro Alvarez popped up and Cedeno whiffed.
Xavier Paul began the ninth with a triple over the head of center fielder Nyjer Morgan. But closer John Axford got Andrew McCutchen and Matt Diaz to ground out – both batters pouncing on the first pitch. Garrett Jones walked.
With a sellout crowd of 43,214 on its feet, Neil Walker struck out to end it.