Brewers 4, Pirates 1
Randy Wolf followed an excellent outing by Shaun Marcum with 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Milwaukee Brewers won their fourth straight and completed an abbreviated two-game sweep of the host Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1 on Thursday at PNC Park.
Marcum pitched seven scoreless innings in a 6-0 win Wednesday and Wolf (1-2) followed by allowing just three hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts – his 13th career double-digit strikeout performance. Tuesday’s series opener was rained out.
The Pirates, who have lost five of six since starting 4-2, ended a 23-inning scoreless drought with a run in the ninth.
Pittsburgh had the leadoff man on four times against Wolf and got a one-out double by Neil Walker in the sixth but couldn’t push any runs across against the left-hander, who entered with a 7.20 ERA.
Kameron Loe retired four batters and John Axford closed out the Pirates after loading the bases in the ninth and allowing one run on a wild pitch.
Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm pitched well after he surrendered two runs in the first. Prince Fielder extended his hitting streak to seven games with an RBI single to open the scoring and Yuniesky Betancourt followed two batters later with a sacrifice fly.
Maholm (0-2) departed after seven effective frames, yielding four hits and three walks with six strikeouts.
Milwaukee tacked on two more in the ninth against Pittsburgh closer Joel Hanrahan on Walker’s throwing error at second and an RBI double by Betancourt.