GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: NL: MILWAUKEE (74-70) at PITTSBURGH (64-81)

Pirates rally to ruin Brewers' comeback

<h3>PITTSBURGH 7, MILWAUKEE 4</h3>By Chris Adamski
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


PITTSBURGH (Ticker) - The Milwaukee Brewers rallied all the wayback, just to give it away again.


After blowing a four-run lead, the Pittsburgh Pirates used athree-run eighth inning to defeat the first-place Brewers, 7-4,Wednesday afternoon.


Steve Pearce had two hits and two RBI and Tom Gorzelanny pitched6 2/3 solid innings for the Pirates, who have won three offour.


"That was a heck of a game," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said."The only tough part about it is that we were not able to finishit (to get a win for Gorzelanny).


"But it caps off a very good homestand."


John Grabow (3-1) got the final out of the eighth for the winand Matt Capps pitched the ninth for his 16th save. During thishomestand, the Pirates took of three each from the Chicago Cubsand Brewers, the top two teams in the NL Central.


"It just goes to show that we can play with these guys," Grabowsaid.


"That builds confidence for us. We have a chance to, I guessyou can say, play the role of spoiler for these teams in theplayoff hunt."


Damian Miller hit his fourth home run for the Brewers, who beganthe day with a one-game lead over the Cubs and a four-gameadvantage over third-place St. Louis. The Cardinals and Cubseach had games to play later Wednesday.


"It's all still right there for us," Miller said. "There's noneed to hang our heads. Obviously, today's loss isn't good, butwe're not going to feel bad about ourselves. It's do-or-dietime."


After the Brewers scored two in the top of the inning to tie thegame at 4-4, Pittsburgh struck against Milwaukee relieverDerrick Turnbow (4-5). With one out, Jose Bautista and Pearcewalked. Ronny Paulino's single scored pinch-runner CesarIzturis, and two batters later, pinch-hitter Josh Phelps tripledto center to drive in a pair.


The Pirates scored a run in the first without getting a hit outof the infield. Brewers starter Dave Bush walked two batters andhit another, and Pearce's two-out grounder deep into the holebetween short and third was not handled cleanly by shortstopJ.J. Hardy. Pearce was credited with a hit and an RBI when NateMcLouth scored.


Pittsburgh made it 4-0 in the third on RBI singles by FreddySanchez (to drive in McLouth) and Bautista (scoring Sanchez) andwhen Pearce grounded into a force play to score Adam LaRoche.

Bush, who was coming off his worst outing of the season when heallowed eight runs in one inning Friday at Cincinnati, waslifted for a pinch hitter after four innings. On Wednesday,Bush allowed four runs on five hits and two walks with twostrikeouts.


"I thought I made some good pitches that got hit for whateverreason," Bush said. "That's something that happens and theystrung some hits together and got some runs."


The Brewers scored their first run in the fourth when Corey Hartgrounded into a double play and Ryan Braun came in from third.With one out and nobody on in the fifth, Miller belted a 3-2pitch to the left field seats to cut the Pittsburgh lead to 4-2.

The Brewers' eighth was marked by Fielder's RBI groundout thatscored Hardy and Hart's triple deep to the wall in left-centeroff the glove of a leaping Nyjer Morgan to score Braun to tiethe game.


Before the comeback, Gorzelanny was in line to improve to 3-0this season against the Brewers and he is still 5-1 with a 3.22ERA in his past eight starts. He went 6 2/3 innings, allowingtwo runs on six hits, walking three with four strikeouts.

"I felt I could have done a lot better than I did," saidGorzelanny, who was in line to become the first Pirate with 15victories in eight years. "I walked too many guys, but I didwhat I could to keep us in the game. I did that and we got awin."


The Brewers completed their road trip 3-3 and return home tobegin a three-game series against Cincinnati Friday.

"You're never satisfied when you lose the last day (of a trip),"manager Ned Yost said. "Especially when you're losing, battleback to tie it and then lose it late. We're not satisfied withthat."