Brewers sink Pirates, 10-1

The Milwaukee Brewers pummeled the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-1 to start off the final home series of the season. This is especially good because the Chicago Cubs lost earlier in the day, which means Milwaukee now has a two-game lead in the NL Wild Card.

Despite having trouble with Steven Brault early in the game, the Milwaukee Nine managed to take an immediate three-run lead. Mike Moustakas got the team’s first hit and drove in Lorenzo Cain, who walked and stole second. Ryan Braun moved Moustakas to third with a double. Then Hernan Perez reached on a throwing error by Pittsburgh shortstop Kevin Newman. Instead of getting out of the inning only one run down, that error allowed two more runs to score.

The Crew went hitless after Ryan Braun’s double in the first until the fifth inning. Orlando Arcia led off with a double, but was picked off second by Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings. Chase Anderson followed that up with a hit that would have all but definitely drove in Arcia. That thankfully didn’t come back to bite Milwaukee.

In the sixth inning, Keston Hiura drove in Yasmani Grandal with a single. Then, with the bases loaded, reliever Yacksel Rios hit Manny Pina to drive in a run. Two batters later, Ben Gamel walked home another run.

While the offense built up six runs, Chase Anderson was dominating the Pirates. He went through six scoreless innings, only allowing three hits and a walk and struck out four. The only time Pittsburgh came close to scoring off Anderson was when Bryan Reynolds hit a one-out triple in the first inning. Anderson stranded Reynolds by striking out Colin Moran and getting Jose Osuna to fly out.

The Pirates scored their only run of the game immediately in the seventh. Devin Williams relieved Chase and gave up a solo homer to Adam Frazier. Williams got through the remaining batters without issue.

The final decisive blow for Milwaukee came in the bottom half of the inning. With the bases loaded, Trent Grisham tripled and put the score at 9-1. Then Manny Pina got Grisham home with a sac fly.

Corbin Burnes pitched the final inning of the game, a perfect ninth inning with one strikeout. That’s Burnes’ first MLB appearance since July 14 when he gave up four runs without recording an out against the San Francisco Giants.

The Brewers look to continue building their lead over the Cubs and possibly tie the Nationals for first in the NL Wild Card with a win tomorrow. Zach Davies (10-7, 3.70 ERA) is on the mound against James Marvel (0-2, 9.00 ERA). First pitch is at 6:10 p.m.