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McLouth reaches river as Pirates drop Brewers into first-place tie

Sep 11, 2007 - 3:34 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Milwaukee Brewers' most recent reign atop the National League Central lasted all of about 30 hours.

Tony Armas pitched six shutout innings and Nate McLouth hit his 12th home run as the Pittsburgh Pirates dropped the Brewers into a tie for first place with a 9-0 victory Monday night.

Corey Hart had two of the Brewers' four hits as Milwaukee fell to 73-70, tied with the Chicago Cubs (73-70) who pounded the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-3, earlier Monday. Third-place St. Louis remained three games back.

"You can give Armas credit, but right now I don't care about credit," said Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder, who went 1-for-3. "We've gotta win. I don't care about credit."

The Pirates are playing the role of spoiler for everyone, having won five of their past eight games all against the three teams fighting for the NL Central title.

"We're still playing for ourselves," said McLouth, whose team is nine games out and in fifth place. "We're playing to win every game. If we happen to beat contenders, I guess all the better."

Armas (4-5), who has worked at least six innings in five of his eight outings since re-joining the rotation August 1, allowed three hits and no walks with three strikeouts.

"(Armas) gave us his best effort of the season, in my opinion," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "Tonight what you saw was a very confident pitcher."

"It feels good," said Armas, who had an 8.46 ERA when he was originally removed from the rotation May 17. "But the thing I like most is that we got the win as a team."

McLouth's homer, which came with Nyjer Morgan aboard off of Brewers starter Carlos Villanueva in the fifth, was a 431-foot blast to right to make it 2-0. The ball made the Allegheny River on a bounce off a path beyond the elevated right field seats, the 21st time that has happened in the seven-year history of PNC Park (in addition to one shot landing in the river on the fly).

It also was the 1,000th home run in the history of PNC Park.

Pittsburgh added two more runs in the sixth against Matt Wise. After Jose Bautista, Ronny Paulino and Jack Wilson singled, the Pirates had the bases loaded with one out. Pinch hitter Josh Phelps grounded to third, and Milwaukee forced Wilson at second, but second baseman Rickie Weeks' relay throw to first was errant, allowing Bautista and Paulino to score.

"That's huge right there," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "You've got to turn that. This time of year, you've got to turn those. Wiser came in and made the pitch he wanted to make, he got the ground ball he wanted and Brauny made a good feed. We just didn't turn it."

Milwaukee had won each of Villanueva's past four starts and six of his past seven outings. In six of his nine career starts, Villanueva (7-4) has limited the opposition to two earned runs or less, including only six earned in his past four starts. But he was the loser Monday after allowing two runs on five hits in five innings, walking three and striking out four.

"I felt like I had decent stuff today," Villanueva said. "The location was not what I would have liked; it could have been a little better, but I felt like it was good. I at least went out there and gave the team a chance to win the game."

The Pirates broke the game open with four runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Adam LaRoche and Steve Pearce, an RBI double by Paulino and a sacrifice fly by Wilson.

"Taking care of the series is what we have to do now," Villanueva said. "It's big to win the series and continue to play winning series.

"It sounds like a cliche this time of year but that's what you have to do now."