Brent Suter and four relievers combined to toss a shutout to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Monday night.
Suter (3-2) tossed five shutout innings to earn the win. He scattered five singles and struck out four. Corey Knebel, who hadn’t pitched in five days, worked the 9th to notch his 36th save.
Ryan Braun put the Brewers on the board with a solo home run to left center in the fourth inning, his 17th of the season.
Jonathan Villar, who was pinch hitting for Suter, led off the sixth inning with a double to right. He scored on a Neil Walker single to make it 2-0 Milwaukee.
Defensively, the Brewers made the Pirates pay with over-aggressive base running, throwing out Elias Diaz trying to stretch a double into a triple in the 7th inning. Then in the 9th, Brett Phillips tossed out Gregory Polanco at second base to end the game. Planco was trying to stretch a single into a double.
Andrew McCutchen collected three hits but the Pirates dropped their sixth straight game.
Both the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies were idle, so the Brewers climbed to within two games of the final wild card spot and within 3 1/2 games of the division leading Cubs.
Chase Anderson (10-3, 2.88) pitches game two of the series on Tuesday night. Trevor Williams (6-8, 4.26) gets the nod for the Pirates. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.
AUDIO: Craig Counsell says starter Brent Suter gave them exactly what they were looking for :09
AUDIO: Winning pitcher Brent Suter called this a complete team win :08
