Pirates lose fifth straight to Brewers

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE

The Milwaukee Brewers topped their crowd-pleasing Christian Yelich bobblehead giveaway with another surprise gift, thanks to Mike Moustakas.

Moustakas launched a homer that won a new SUV for a fan, Yelich hit his major league-leading 24th home run and the Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 Sunday for a three-game sweep.

“That homer won us the game and somebody a car, which is pretty cool,” Yelich said.

Moustakas connected for his 20th homer off Francisco Liriano (1-1). The tiebreaking, two-run drive in the eighth inning hit the roof of a metallic gray SUV, a promotional vehicle perched above the right-center field fence. One lucky fan got the same model to go along with their Yelich bobblehead.

“I didn’t know that I actually won somebody a car until afterwards,” Moustakas said. “You came to ballgame and leave with a car is pretty cool.”

The Brewers said season ticketholder Mark Gruber was the fortunate fan.

Liriano said he didn’t execute the way he wanted and it cost him.

“I just missed my spot,” he said after the Pirates lost their fifth straight to the Brewers. “I walked (Yasmani) Grandal, then Moustakas put a good swing on it.”

Jeremy Jeffress (1-0) pitched the eighth. Josh Hader struck out the side in the ninth for his 16th save and moved the Brewers a season-high 10 games over .500.

Yelich kept the ballpark rocking when he hit the first pitch from starter Steven Brault into the party porch in right in the sixth.

Brault went a career-best 61/3 innings and struck out five. He turned over a 2-1 lead with one out in the sixth to Richard Rodriguez, and pinch-hitter Ben Gamel greeted him with an RBI single that made it 2-all.

Brault planned to use a four-seamer and a sinker as his primary pitches against the Brewers.

“We’re going to attack these guys and see what happens,” he said. “That was the main goal.”

Jung Ho Kang hit a two-run homer in the first off Chase Anderson.

Pirates rookie Bryan Reynolds extended his hitting streak to 17 games with an infield single in the first. He also singled in the eighth.

Anderson allowed two runs on four hits over six innings.

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Pirates: RHP Joe Musgrove (4-6, 4.44 ERA) makes his 13th start this season, facing RHP Kevin Gausman (2-5, 6.15 ERA) in the opener of a four-game road series with the Atlanta Braves.