Brewers cruise by Pirates
PITTSBURGH — Omar Narvaez homered and had four RBIs, Brett Anderson pitched six strong innings and the Milwaukee Brewers scored eight runs in the first two innings to roll past the Pittsburgh Pirates for a 9-0 victory on Tuesday night.
Narvaez’s two-run homer started a three-run first inning, and his two-run single highlighted a five-run second against Luis Oviedo, who was making his first major league start.
Anderson (3-5) yielded three hits while striking out three and walking one. He has won both starts against the Pirates this season, allowing one unearned run in 13 innings. He is 5-1 against them lifetime.
Miguel Sanchez, Hunter Strickland and Jandel Gustave pitched one inning each to finish the four-hitter, the Brewers’ 11th shutout of the season.
Rowdy Tellez hit a two-run single in the second and a solo home run in the ninth for the NL Central-leading Brewers. Narvaez, Tellez, Kolten Wong, Avisail Garcia and Lorenzo Cain had two hits each.
Milwaukee’s 38-19 record since May 22 is the best in the major leagues. So is the team’s 30-18 road mark this season.
Ben Gamel and Jacob Stallings each had two of the four hits for the Pirates, who lost for the sixth time in eight games.
The Brewers won after arriving in Pittsburgh late Tuesday morning. Their scheduled charter flight from Milwaukee on Monday night was canceled due to COVID-19 testing and contract tracing.
Oviedo was a late replacement for Tyler Anderson. The left-hander was scratched from his scheduled start amid multiple reports that he was about to be traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.
However, the trade was not immediately finalized, and Anderson wound up throwing a side session in the bullpen about 90 minutes before the start of the game. He also watched the game from the dugout.
