PITTSBURGH – The Milwaukee Brewers scored six runs in the fifth inning to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3. Following an early pitchers duel between starters Brandon Woodruff and Andre Jackson, and after Jackson retired the first nine Milwaukee batters, the Brewers cracked the code at the start of the second trip through the order when Jackson walked the bases loaded to open the top of the fourth inning. Jackson redeemed himself after he got Mark Canha to ground into a double play, despite it scoring Christian Yelich to put the Crew up 1-0.
The Brewers’ offense continued to punish Jackson in the fifth frame. After walking Sal Frelick, Andruw Monasterio tripled to put the Crew up 2-0. Brice Turang followed with a soft single to plate Monasterio and Christian Yelich knocked a sacrifice fly to score Turang and end Jackson’s outing. Thomas Hatch came on in relief and walked William Contreras before Carlos Santana doubled to bring around Taylor and increase the lead to 5-0. Canha got his first two RBIs on the evening with a single that drove in Contreras and Santana to cap off the fifth inning with a 7-0 advantage.
Pittsburgh got their only runs off of a Connor Joe three-run home run in the ninth inning, but Elvis Peguero limited the rest of the damage to secure a series split in the Steel City.
On the mound, Woodruff locked up his fourth win of 2023 after seven shutout innings and Jackson took his second loss of the campaign. In relief, Andrew Chafin pitched a shutout stanza, Clayton Andrews entered in the ninth, but failed to record an out and conceded three runs and Peguero finished the job, allowing two hits and no runs in the final frame.
Milwaukee looks for a win in the rubber match tomorrow before heading off to New York for a weekend set against the Yankees. Freddy Peralta (11-8, 3.85) takes the hill for the Brewers. Pittsburgh has yet to name a starting pitcher. First pitch is scheduled for 11:35 a.m. CT.