Brewers beat Bucs 3-1 with two blasts
The Milwaukee Brewers pulled out an improbable win against the Pittsburgh Pirates Monday night 3-1 with just three hits all game. Two of those hits were home runs from Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder, their second consecutive game each with home runs. Fielder took over the lead for home runs in the National League with 23. The Brewers (43-51) have now won six of their last eight, but are still nine and a half games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. The Pirates fell to 32-60 on the season and are 19.5 games out of the race in the NL Central.
Chris Capuano (1-1) got his first win since 2007, snapping his 13-game losing streak, which was also a franchise record. Capuano missed the previous two seasons due to injury and only returned last month from his second Tommy John surgery.
"It's going to be pretty tough to get me down tonight," Capuano said. "The time since my last win definitely wasn't lost on me.
"It was just a really nice lift from the team because they hit some hard-hit balls. Our guys played great defence, and I left four innings for the 'pen to eat up. It feels great. I really appreciate it from my team."
The bullpen finished the game nicely, using four pitchers to throw four shutout innings, using Todd Coffey, Zach Braddock and Kameron Loe until John Axford earned the save, his 12th in as many attempts.
Hard-hitting streak comes to an end
The Pirates had two consecutive wins against the Houston Astros before Monday's game, combining for a season-high 36 hits in the two games, the highest in two games for the Bucs in 35 years. But the Pirates could only string together six hits against the Brewers and never had more than one in an inning. Their only run came off the bat of shortstop Ronny Cedeno with an RBI triple, driving home third baseman Pedro Alverez.
The Pirates had an opportunity at the end of the game with two runners on and the winning run at the plate, but Axford shut them down.
"We had the winning run at the plate; that's all you can ask for against a closer," Pirates manager John Russell said. "We just couldn't come up with that big hit."
Playing without their 23-year-old phenom center fielder Andrew McCutchen may have led to the Pirates going back to their normal ways of weak hitting and low scores. There's no reported timetable for McCutchen's return to the lineup with his shoulder/neck injury. Jose Tabata filled in at center field for the Pirates and batted at the top of the order, but failed to reach base going 0-4 with a strikeout.
Karstens throws gem, still loses
Pittsburgh starter Jeff Karstens had a perfect game through four innings — until Fielder drove the first pitch of the at bat just over the left-field wall. A bunt single by pinch-hitter Carlos Gomez was the next hit surrendered by Kastens in the sixth inning, which was followed by Weeks' two-run shot.
"Those were really the only two mistakes [Karstens] made," Pirates manager John Russell said. "Unfortunately, he had to pay for it."
In the first five innings, the 2-5 Karstens allowed threw just seven balls out of his 47 total pitches. At the end of the night, he finished with an efficient 66 pitches through six innings, 53 of which were strikes.
"I just felt I had a really good rhythm throwing strikes and then when I got ahead I was expanding the zone a little bit making them chase," Karstens said. "Just doing what I've been doing while I've been here."
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