Pirates’ offense held in check by Brewers

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Revamped lineup, same result for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates aren’t hitting and they wasted another strong starting pitching performance Thursday.

Randy Wolf had 10 strikeouts and allowed only three hits in 6 2/3 shutout innings and the Milwaukee Brewers handed the Pirates their fourth consecutive loss, 4-1 Thursday.

Andrew McCutchen scored Pittsburgh’s first run in 23 innings when he came home on a wild pitch after walking in the ninth.

“Hitting is contagious, and we need to get a couple guys hot,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve got to get everybody involved to some degree. We just have some pieces not hot and not contributing right now. We haven’t been able to connect the dots from the top to the bottom of the lineup.”

Wolf (1-2) allowed only two singles, a double and two walks, and didn’t allow a Pittsburgh runner to advance past second base as Milwaukee narrowly missed out on its second consecutive shutout and majors-best fourth in 12 games.

Pirates starter Paul Maholm allowed four of the first five batters to reach, but he retired 20 of his final 23. Maholm (0-2) gave up two runs — both in the first inning — and four hits and three walks with six strikeouts in seven innings.

“I would much rather have come out and put up a zero in the first and let our guys relax and not put us behind,” Maholm said. “But you go out there and you try to make sure your team stays in the game. As soon as they got two, I just kind of said, ’That’s it. You’ve got to get seven innings and keep them there and give the guys a chance.”’

He did that, but those two early runs proved too much of a deficit for the struggling Pirates to overcome — even with a new lineup Thursday. Pittsburgh came in with no runs and only four hits (all singles) in the previous 14 innings.

The streak of extra base hits would last until the sixth, when Neil Walker’s deep fly to left bounced out of Ryan Braun’s glove and was ruled a double.

Hurdle sat struggling third baseman Pedro Alvarez.