GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: NL: PITTSBURGH (49-68) at MILWAUKEE (62-57)

Hall snaps slump as Brewers pound Pirates

<h3>MILWAUKEE 12, PITTSBURGH 3</h3>By J.R. Radcliffe
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Bill Hall might be back.


Batting in an unusual spot in the order, Hall snapped out of aprolonged funk with four RBI and the Milwaukee Brewers explodedfor 15 hits in a 12-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates onSaturday night.


Kevin Mench finished a triple shy of the cycle and also drove inthree runs while scoring four times and Corey Hart homered andscored three runs.


Righthander Dave Bush (11-9) was the beneficiary of the amplesupport, finishing with one run allowed on four hits in sixinnings. Nate McLouth walked leading off the game and scored onFreddy Sanchez's RBI double to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead, butMilwaukee quickly turned the game around.


Each of the first five batters in the Milwaukee second reachedbase against Shane Youman (3-5), who allowed eight runs on sevenhits in two-plus innings. Johnny Estrada's two-run single andHall's two-run double were the biggest blows, with J.J. Hardycontributing a run-scoring single later in the frame.

Milwaukee splurged for three more in the third, two on Mench's<div class="pre">double and another on a Hall sacrifice fly. Hall batting in</div>the eighth spot for just the fourth time this year after going<div class="pre">hitless in his previous 14 at-bats came up with his fourth RBI</div>of the game in the fifth, coming on a two-out single.

Hall had been batting just .211 since returning from thedisabled list on July 25, with three home runs in 109 at-bats.The converted shortstop, who hit 35 home runs last season andhas 12 in 2007, also made a spectacular diving catch ending thefirst, preventing the Pirates from scoring two additional runs.

Mench's home run in the seventh against reliever Juan Perezimmediately followed a two-run dinger by Hart, giving theBrewers a league-leading 184 home runs on the season.

Prince Fielder finished 3-for-3 and reached base four times, andMilwaukee's offense clicked despite a 3-for-14 performance bythe starters in the batting order's top three slots.

With Chicago's win over Houston earlier in the afternoon, theBrewers were unable to pick up ground in the Central standings,though the win did move Milwaukee back above .500 at 68-67.

 

Hall snaps slump as Brewers pound Pirates

<h3>MILWAUKEE 12, PITTSBURGH 3</h3>By J.R. Radcliffe
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Bill Hall might be back.


Batting in an unusual spot in the order, Hall snapped out of aprolonged funk with four RBI and highlight-reel catch in centeras the Milwaukee Brewers exploded for 15 hits in a 12-3 victoryover the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.


Kevin Mench finished a triple shy of the cycle and also drove inthree runs while scoring four times and Corey Hart homered andscored three runs.


Righthander Dave Bush (11-9) was the beneficiary of the amplesupport, finishing with one run allowed on four hits in sixinnings.


Nate McLouth walked leading off the game and scored on FreddySanchez's RBI double to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead, butMilwaukee quickly turned the game around, starting with Hall'ssnare in center.


In his first major league at-bat, Steve Pearce pounded anoffering to center with two runners on, and Hall made anoutstretched-grab on the warning track to save a big inning.

"Play of the game, no doubt about it," Bush said. "Both guyswere running, so it saved me two runs, guaranteed. It reallyset the tone for us and we came back to second and they gave mea nice lead and we just tacked on. It was a nice night foreverybody."


Brewers manager Ned Yost saw it similarly.


"I don't want to say it inspired us, but it really got everybodyfired up, big time," he said. "I thought Billy had no chance ofcatching the ball, because the ball was slicing away from him.That was a huge play for us."


Each of the first five batters in the Milwaukee second reachedbase against Shane Youman (3-5), who allowed eight runs on sevenhits in two-plus innings. Johnny Estrada's two-run single andHall's two-run double were the biggest blows, with J.J. Hardycontributing a run-scoring single later in the frame.

Milwaukee splurged for three more in the third, two on Mench'sdouble and another on a Hall sacrifice fly. Hall, batting inthe eighth spot for just the fourth time this year after goinghitless in his previous 14 at-bats, came up with his fourth RBIof the game in the fifth, coming on a two-out single.

"Everybody's going to try to get down there," Hall said,referring to the eighth spot in the order, a place where Hardyhad found recent success. "I tried to have not as much movementas I've had (in my swing). I've kind of calmed my whole swingdown and simplified it down basically."


Hall had been batting just .211 since returning from thedisabled list on July 25, with three home runs in 109 at-bats.The converted shortstop, who hit 35 home runs last season andhas 12 in 2007, though his acclimation to the new position hasshown immense improvement through the year.


"Fortunately our warning track has a lot of soft dirt outthere," Hall said of his snare. "No torn skin, just a lot ofdirt on the uniform. I'm sure the clubhouse guys are going tohave a time with that one tonight." Mench's home run in theseventh against reliever Juan Perez immediately followed atwo-run dinger by Hart, giving the Brewers a league-leading 184home runs on the season.


Prince Fielder finished 3-for-3 and reached base four times, andMilwaukee 's offense clicked despite a 3-for-14 performance bythe starters in the batting order's top three slots. Estradafinished 3-for-4 with two driven in.


With Chicago's win over Houston earlier in the afternoon, theBrewers were unable to pick up ground in the Central standings,though the win did move Milwaukee back above .500 at 68-67.Pittsburgh, meanwhile, fell to 59-76.


"We simply got pitched out of the game early on," skipper JimTracy said. "The thing that helped the second inning was theback-to-back walks to start the inning (by Youman). A couplebloop hits and when you've walked people in front of bloop hits,it's going to correlate to runs. Shane has to pitch ahead.He's got to get ahead of hitters and make his pitches and hewasn't able to do that tonight."