Omar Narvaez had a career-high five hits, Avisail Garcia drove in five runs and Jace Peterson drove in four more Saturday to help the visiting Milwaukee Brewers blast the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-2 for their 11th straight win.
Milwaukee starter Eric Lauer (3-3) pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run and four hits, with four walks and four strikeouts.
Ben Gamel homered and Jared Oliva hit an RBI single for the Pirates, who have lost six in a row.
Pittsburgh starter Cody Ponce (0-2) recorded just five outs before leaving with right arm soreness. He gave up five runs and six hits, with three walks and three strikeouts.
Christian Yelich drew a one-out walk in the first for Milwaukee. An out later, Narvaez singled. Garcia drove in Yelich with a double for a 1-0 lead. Peterson followed with a double to drive in Narvaez and Garcia to make it 3-0.
In the second with two outs, Yelich hit a ground-rule double. Willy Adames walked, then Narvaez’s pop-up to shallow left dropped in, allowing Yelich to score. Garcia singled in Adames for a 5-0 lead, leading to Ponce’s exit.
Pittsburgh broke through in the bottom of the second. Gamel hit a one-out bunt single. An out later, Phillip Evans walked. Oliva, with his first major league RBI, drove in Gamel with a single to cut it to 5-1.
In the sixth, Yelich again got things going, this time with a leadoff walk. One out later, Narvaez singled, moving Yelich to third. Peterson’s two-out single drove in Yelich for a 6-1 Milwaukee lead. Peterson stole second and Keston Hiura walked to load the bases. A wild pitch by reliever Chris Stratton brought in Narvaez to make it 7-1.
Against Kyle Keller in the eighth, Adames doubled, went to third on another Narvaez single and scored on an error by Adam Frazier. Narvaez scored to make it 9-1 when Peterson reached on a single.
Gamel hit his fourth homer of the season, to right, in the eighth.
Garcia had an RBI double and Peterson a sacrifice fly in the ninth to push it to 11-2.
–Field Level Media
