PITTSBURGH — Ben Sheets kept getting better and better, and pretty soon he was approaching perfection.

Sheets retired the first 18 batters before Chris Duffy led off the seventh inning with a single, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 Wednesday to split a doubleheader.

"Things were going good. I ain't going to lie. It definitely crossed my mind," Sheets said.

"If it's your day, it's going to be your day, no matter what you do. I had a good day," he said.

In the opener, Freddy Sanchez got three hits and Ian Snell struck out 10 as Pittsburgh won 6-3.

Sheets (5-6) gave up two hits and struck out 10 in eight innings. He did not walk a batter. One pitch after Duffy singled, Sheets picked him off first base.

"We got into the seventh inning and I started thinking, 'He's got a real shot at a no-hitter here with his stuff,"' Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "The first inning, the first couple of hitters he was just OK. And then all of a sudden, it just clicked for him and he started getting stronger and stronger and stronger. He just had really good stuff today: Good breaking ball, real good fastball, really good changeup, spotting well."

There has not been a perfect game in the majors since Randy Johnson pitched one for Arizona at Atlanta on May 18, 2004.

While Sheets was trying to do it at PNC Park, Freddy Garcia of the Chicago White Sox was taking a perfect-game try into the seventh inning at Anaheim against the Angels. Moments after Duffy's hit, Adam Kennedy singled with two outs in the eighth for the Angels.

Geoff Jenkins and Prince Fielder homered as the Brewers won for only the second time in their last seven games and fourth time in their last 19.

Sheets' gem was in front of an announced crowd of 11,627 — but far fewer than that witnessed it. The matchup two of the National League's four worst teams on a chilly and drizzly afternoon had what appeared to be less than 1,000 fans on hand by the time his perfect-game bid reached the sixth inning.

Ryan Doumit homered in the Pirates' eighth.

Shawn Chacon (1-3) gave up five hits in seven innings.

Freddy Sanchez had three hits in the opener, including his 47th double, which tied the team record for right-handed batters set by Adam Comorosky in 1930.

Sanchez went 0-for-3 in the second game, dropping his average back to .340. He began the day at .339, leading the NL in hitting by a fraction of a point over Florida's Miguel Cabrera.