Beer is stronger than steel. Milwaukee owns Pittsburgh. Randy Wolf was dominant. Paul Maholm deserved better. The Bucco batters who let down the team again.
Milwaukee started early against Maholm. A single and a walk put two men on with Prince Fielder up. In what will likely be his last year in Milwaukee, Fielder has gotten off to a fast start. He singled to score Rickie Weeks with the first run of the game. Yuniesky Betancourt delivered a sac fly to make it 2-0.
That was all the scoring until the ninth. Maholm settled down and Wolf settled in. The Brewers starter tossed 6-2/3 inning of shutout baseball. He struck out ten and allowed just three hits and two walks. Milwaukee failed to advance another runner past second base against Maholm. He gave up just the two runs in seven innings. He gave up four hits and three walks while striking out six.
Joel Hanrahan allowed Milwaukee to put up two more runs in the ninth. Betancourt and former Buc Nyjer Morgan had RBI knocks. Brewers closer John Axford struggled in the ninth. The Pirates put the tying run on base after Axford yielded a single and two walks. Andrew McCutchen scored the lone Pirate run on a wild pitch. But Josh Rodriguez struck out to end the game.
The Good
Maholm. I’ll take seven innings and two runs all season long.
Getting a chance to tie the game in the ninth.
The Bad
The hitting. Duh.
Falling two games under .500.
Losing so frequently to Milwaukee and now coming into Cincinnati to face the defenind division champs.
The Rest
Wolf is now 9-4 against Pittsburgh in his career. He had allowed 19 hits in ten innings thus far in 2011.
Fielder came into the game just 3-42 with 13 whiffs against Maholm.
Steve Pearce started at third, marking his first career start in the Majors at that position. Pedro Alvarez, who has just one extra base hit on the year, didn’t start and whiffed in a pinch hitting appearance.
Pittsburgh has scored just 15 runs in the last six games. The club is 1-5 in that stretch.
Chris Snyder made his first appearance of 2011. He was 0-2 with a walk.
