MILWAUKEE — Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Josh Bell has joked for years during batting practice at Miller Park about hitting the promotional vehicle parked well above the wall in right-center field.

Bell finally did it Sunday. His towering shot in the fourth inning put the Pirates ahead for good in a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I know I’ve been trying to hit that for three years now,” Bell said. “That’s a first. You’ve got to get it really high, so it’s tough to do in batting practice.”

It’s even tougher to do in a game that counts against Brandon Woodruff, who had gone 10-0 with a 2.89 ERA in 16 home starts over the past two seasons.

Yet Bell pulled it off.

His blast hit the hood of the promotional SUV located below the Miller Park scoreboard and to its right. The Pirates were in town last year when former Brewer Mike Moustakas hit a Toyota RAV4 in the same location, enabling a fan to win the prize.

The promotion only applies to homers hit by Brewers, so nobody won a free car after Bell’s shot. That didn’t stop the Pirates from joking about the possibilities after the game.

“You don’t want that one because it’s probably got a huge dent in it at this point,” Pirates starter Steven Brault said. “That ball was absolutely crushed.”

The homer continued the recent resurgence for Bell, a 2019 All-Star who arrived in Milwaukee on Friday with a .190 batting average and just one homer all season. He has gone 5 of 10 in this series and has homered in back-to-back games.

“It seemed like at times you could throw me a ball right down the middle, and I was mis-hitting it into the ground,” Bell said. “It doesn’t seem like that’s the case right now, so I’m just going to try to stay with where I’m at.”

Bell’s big shot allowed him to redeem himself after a defensive miscue.

Pittsburgh’s Gregory Polanco had opened the scoring with a homer in the second inning. Milwaukee tied it with an unearned run in the third when Keston Hiura’s two-out single brought home Luis Urias after Bell committed an error at first base earlier in the inning.

Bell responded in the top of the fourth with his two-run blast off Woodruff (2-3).