Bashing Brewers
MILWAUKEE — Given a chance to move 10 games over .500 for the first time in 15 years, the Milwaukee Brewers fell short.
Jose Bautista and Ronny Paulino hit consecutive home runs in a four-run seventh inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied for a 4-2 victory Thursday night that stopped the Brewers' four-game winning streak.
"It's very frustrating," Brewers starter Dave Bush said. "Mostly it's just disappointing. I am one pitch away from maybe getting a win, at least putting us in a position to get a win. I am disappointed that when it came down to it, I couldn't make the pitch when I needed to. I wish I had an answer for it."
Tom Gorzelanny (4-1) won his fourth straight road start, giving up two runs and six hits in seven innings. Salomon Torres pitched the ninth for his ninth save in 12 chances.
Pittsburgh (13-14) had lost four of its previous five games following an 11-10 start.
Bush (2-3) gave up four runs and six hits in seven innings, allowing just one runner past second base in the first six innings.
With Pittsburgh trailing 2-0 in the seventh, Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay opened with doubles. Bautista hit a go-ahead, two-run homer with two outs and Paulino took a ball, then homered for a two-run lead.
"What put that opportunity in play was the job that our starting pitcher did," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "I don't know what happens if (the Brewers) put a couple more runs up. It's just another terrific pitching performance."
A few costly baserunning mistakes hurt the Brewers, who still lead the NL Central at 18-10.
Bush helped himself with a one-out double in the third, his third hit and second double in 11 at-bats this season, and scored on Prince Fielder's two-out single. But J.J. Hardy, who had walked and went to third on Fielder's single, was caught trying to steal home on the next pitch, ending the inning.
Yost said it was supposed to be a straight steal of second by Fielder, who stopped running between first and second, and Hardy tried to steal home on his own. He was thrown out easily.
In the fourth, Bill Hall singled to start the inning, went to second on a wild pitch and third on a groundout. But shortstop Jack Wilson threw him out easily at home after Hall ran on contact on Kevin Mench's grounder. Yost said Hall made a mistake.
Then in the fifth, Tony Graffanino was caught stealing when Bush swung and missed on a hit-and-run play.
Yost said the team ran itself out of the game early.
"But that wasn't the intention," he said. "If you are afraid of running yourself out of the game, you might as well just go station to station and play very safe baseball.
"We are trying to win games. We are going to stay aggressive, and we are going to play aggressive."
Milwaukee has not been 10 games over .500 since finishing the 1992 season 92-70. That also was the last time the Brewers finished with a winning record.
