Pirates 7, Brewers 4: A Five-Run Second and the Season Series

Two outs, bases loaded, and a season series that had not been theirs since 2018

September 17, 2026 - Pittsburgh - Kyle Harrison had two outs in the second at PNC Park. Then a walk, a single, and catcher's interference loaded the bases. Konnor Griffin doubled to left. Two runs. Oneil Cruz singled to left. Two more. Brandon Lowe was hit with the bases loaded. A fifth run. The Pittsburgh Pirates led 5-1, and the inning that decided the season series was already in the book.

They beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4. Pittsburgh won the season series 7-6. The MLB recap said the Pirates had not taken the season series from Milwaukee since 2018. They went 3-10 against the Brewers last year. Manager Don Kelly, per the MLB recap: "They obviously won the division, and I think it's something that we're trying to get there. As we continue to compete against them and continue to get better, we need to find ways to do that."

Partly cloudy. 77 degrees. Wind 5 mph out to left. First pitch 12:35 p.m. Attendance 10,818. The game lasted 2 hours, 56 minutes. Pittsburgh had seven hits. Milwaukee had nine. Milwaukee is 95-58, the best record in baseball, two games up on the Dodgers for the top National League seed, with the tiebreaker. Pittsburgh is 76-77 and closing on an 11th straight year without October.

Milwaukee scored first. Pittsburgh scored five.

Joey Ortiz reached in the top of the second. Sal Frelick singled. Bo Naylor struck out. David Hamilton singled Ortiz home. 1-0 Brewers. That lead lasted until Harrison recorded those first two outs in the bottom half and then could not record a third.

Ronny Simon walked. Jared Triolo singled. Henry Davis reached on catcher's interference by Naylor. Griffin's double scored Simon and Triolo, Davis to third. Cruz's single scored Davis and Griffin. Bryan Reynolds was hit. Rafael Flores Jr. walked. Lowe was hit, Cruz scoring. 5-1. Nick Gonzales struck out. Harrison lasted 1 2/3 innings. Four hits. Five runs, four earned. Two walks. Two strikeouts. Fifty pitches. The ESPN recap said he has given up 24 runs over nine innings in his last four outings. He is 10-5. The last four starts are why that record will not be the thing Milwaukee remembers.

Garrett Stallings later threw three innings for Milwaukee. One hit. Zero runs. Six strikeouts. That is the outing that kept 5-1 from becoming something worse in the middle innings. It did not get the Brewers back in the game.

A bullpen game, Davis in the eighth, Montgomery for four outs

Pittsburgh was down two starting pitchers for the rest of the season, the MLB recap said, and pieced together another bullpen day. Wilber Dotel started and threw two innings. Three hits. One run. Khristian Curtis (2-0) threw 3 1/3. One hit. One run. Three walks. Three strikeouts. Sixty-one pitches. He got the win. Gregory Soto and Camilo Doval bridged the seventh.

Naylor's forceout scored Ortiz in the sixth, a throwing error by Griffin letting Naylor take second. 5-2. The eighth got loud again. Garrett Mitchell, out of the lineup a second straight day with left-side neck stiffness, the ESPN recap said, doubled as a pinch hitter. Frelick's sacrifice fly scored him. Naylor then homered to right off Luke Weaver, his third, after an umpire review upheld the call. 5-4. Two outs from a save situation that had been a five-run lead.

Davis answered. He homered to left off Aaron Ashby, Simon scoring. 7-4. His 10th. He finished 1-for-2 with a walk, two runs, and two RBI. Griffin went 1-for-4 with the double, a walk, and two RBI. Cruz went 1-for-5 with two RBI. Lowe had a double, a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and the fifth run of the second. Seven hits were enough because the second inning did the heavy lifting and Davis added two more when Milwaukee had climbed within one.

Mason Montgomery got four outs for his 14th save in 16 chances. The ESPN recap said he has not allowed a run in 21 2/3 innings. Two walks in the ninth. Zero hits. Two strikeouts. Twenty-nine pitches. Closer, per the MLB recap, on beating a club that had already clinched: "I think it's a big deal. They're a team that's clinched. They're a really good team. We're just trying to take it one day at a time. So I think each win is huge."

The only NL Central club with a winning record against the best team

The MLB recap said Pittsburgh is the only NL Central team with a winning record against Milwaukee this year. The Bucs led the season series 5-1 after a homestand sweep before the break, added a win on Trade Deadline day, then dropped three straight. Milwaukee won Tuesday and clinched a fourth straight division title in the visiting clubhouse. Wednesday evened the season series at 6-6. Thursday broke it.

Friday, Paul Skenes is listed against Kansas City. Milwaukee opens at Baltimore. The Brewers are still the club everyone else is chasing. The Pirates are still a game under .500. A 7-4 on a Thursday in September does not change that. It does mean that when this group talks about competing with the team that just won a fourth straight Central, they can point to a 7-6 season series instead of last year's 3-10.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Pittsburgh at 13 team fantasy points, tied for fourth on Thursday. Davis had 8 hitting FP. Griffin had 5. Milwaukee finished at 0. Naylor had 7 hitting FP on the loss side.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*