Hart's ninth-inning homer caps Brewers' sweep of Pirates

Baseball Betting Lines

07/11/2010 - Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Corey Hart capped his All-Star first half with a game-winning, two-run homer in the ninth, lifting the Brewers to a 6-5 win over the Pirates in the finale of a three-game series.

After Andrew McCutchen's sacrifice fly scored Ronny Cedeno to give Pittsburgh a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth, Jim Edmonds led off the bottom half with a ground-rule double off Octavio Dotel (2-2).

Two batters later, Hart crushed a 1-0 slider over the wall in left for his 21st home run of the season, finishing off a sweep that featured three one-run victories for the hosts.

"It's nice to come back and sweep and go into the break with some momentum," Hart said. "I've had some success against Dotel in the past, and that helped me. I just wanted to get a chance to do something after going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. It's always nice to get one more at-bat."

Ryan Braun went 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored for Milwaukee, which had lost five straight entering the series and sits at 40-49 entering the break.

Lastings Milledge went 2-for-3 with a solo homer for Pittsburgh (30-58), which enters the break on a six-game skid thanks to Dotel's second blown save in the set and fifth of the season.

"I can't really explain what's going on, but you don't see any guys with their heads down," Pirates manager John Russell said of his club. "They're strong mentally. We're looking forward to the second half."

Neither starter factored in the decision. Milwaukee's Randy Wolf gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks in six frames, while Brad Lincoln allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks over six-plus innings for Pittsburgh.

John Axford (5-1) was credited with the win despite giving up the go-ahead run in the ninth, as Cedeno reached on a bunt, moved to third on Delwyn Young's pinch-hit single and scored on McCutchen's fly to right.

The Pirates pushed across three runs in the second. Milledge got the scoring started with his second homer in the series, while Ryan Doumit and Cedeno scored on Lincoln's single and McCutchen's sac fly, respectively.

The Brewers played small ball to get on the board in the third, as Alcides Escobar doubled, moved up on a bunt and raced home on Rickie Weeks' sac fly.

Homers by Braun and George Kottaras the next frame tied things, but Pedro Alvarez took Wolf deep over the center-field wall in the sixth to make it 4-3.

Milwaukee tied it in the eighth when Carlos Gomez brought in Braun with a two- out single to right off Joel Hanrahan.

Game Notes

Braun had two hits in each game this series after coming in mired in an 0- for-19 slump...Wolf came in 8-2 with a 3.42 earned run average in his career against the Pirates...The Brewers swept the Pirates from April 20-22 earlier this season, lead the season series, 8-3...Cedeno had three hits in the loss...It was Hart's second career walk-off home run...Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder tied a club record with 274 consecutive games played.

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