Hardy’s patience pays off as Brewers rally in 12th

Milwaukee needed extra innings to defeat Pittsburgh for another home win.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — J.J. Hardy’s patience was wearing thin in extra innings, but he waited — exactly one more pitch.

Hardy drove in the winning run on his bobblehead day at Miller Park, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat Pittsburgh 4-3 in 12 innings on Sunday for their 12th straight home win over the Pirates.

“It’s just a coincidence that it’s bobble day for me that it happened, but it’s nice to have that many fans out there and win a ball game like that,” said Hardy, who finished 3-for-5.

CC Sabathia got a no-decision instead of a victory for a change, but the Brewers still kept pace in the playoff race with their 23rd win in their last at-bat and ninth series sweep this season.

Milwaukee leads the Cardinals by 31‚Ñ2 games for the wild card with two games in St. Louis beginning Tuesday, and trails the Chicago Cubs by 41‚Ñ2 games in the NL Central after both division rivals won on Sunday as well.

Pirates reliever Jason Davis (1-4) walked Rickie Weeks with one out in the 12th. Weeks stole second moments later, setting the stage for Hardy, who drove the next pitch just over the infield for the winner.

“I was planning on swinging at that fastball, but I saw Rickie take off, so I figured I’d take it, let him get to second, scoring position,” Hardy said. “Split-finger, I think he hung it a little bit and it found a hole for me.”

It was a bitter end for the Pirates, who loaded the bases with no outs in the 12th off Brewers reliever Carlos Villanueva with a single by Ryan Doumit and two walks.

Villanueva was yanked for Guillermo Mota,.

Mota (4-5) forced Brandon Moss to fly out to shallow center field, struck out Chris Gomez and got Luis Rivas to ground out to end the inning.

“You just had the feeling getting out of that jam right there, we were going to win the ball game in the bottom half of the inning,” Brewers manager Ned Yost said.

Gomez hit a bouncer down the left field line that went just foul before striking out.

“I thought it was right over the bag,” he said.

Mike Cameron, who finished a career-best 5-for-5, homered off Pirates reliever Denny Bautista in the eighth to give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead, but closer Salomon Torres blew his sixth save of the season.

Torres allowed a leadoff single to Rivas opening the ninth and threw a wild pitch to put him at second. Pinch hitter Nate McLouth, who’d missed the previous four games with a viral infection, singled to tie it 3-all.