Pittsburgh Pirates 3 Milwaukee Brewers 7 (April 18, 2007)
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0 commentsBrewers' starter Claudio Vargas(0-0) was the star of the night against the Pirates and Paul Maholm(0-1).
The Brewers bats took no time to provide run support for Vargas. In the bottom of the first, Rickie Weeks led off with a double, then scored on a Kevin Mench bloop single to right. Bill Hall, with only three hits in his last 23 at bats, followed with a homerun to the opposite field to give the Brewers an early 3-0 lead.
The Pirates cut the lead to 3-1 with a Jason Bay dinger in the second inning.
Pittsburgh threatened again in the top of the fourth. Freddy Sanchez started the inning with a single, followed by walks from Adam LaRoche and Bay. With the bases loaded and no outs, the Pirates seemed destined for a run. As mentioned earlier, however, this was Vargas' night. He fanned the next three batters to get out of the inning unscathed.
In the top of the fifth, bad defense led to a Pirates run. Vargas attempted to pickoff Chris Duffy at first, but Damian Miller, filling in for Prince Fielder, could not handle the throw. Duffy took second on the error. Vargas then tried to pick Duffy off at second base. He bounced the ball in front of and past 2B Weeks. Duffy headed to third. As CF Hall aggressively fielded the ball, it popped out of his hand. Seeing an opportunity, Duffy ran home to score, beating Hall's throw to the plate.
In the bottom of the sixth, Hall had his chance to make up for the defensive miscue. With Mench on second, he drove a liner into right center for an RBI double, extending the Brewers' lead to 4-2. Miller later singled in Johnny Estrada for another run in the inning.
The Pirates were only able to score one more run the rest of the night, while the Brewers added two against reliever John Wasdin, taking the game 7-3.
Game Notes:
- Hall went 3-4 with 3 RBI.
- Maholm dropped to 0-2, while Vargas one his first game.
- Jason Bay was 3-3 at the plate.
- Tony Gwynn Jr. had a pinch hit RBI bunt single.
- Vargas struck out 11 batters.
Date
April 18, 2007
