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Brewers look to continue hot start

May 3, 2007 - 3:10 PM Pittsburgh (12-14) at Milwaukee (18-9) 8:05 pm EDT

MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The Milwaukee Brewers have the best record in the majors heading into the opener of a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Milwaukee is off to its best 27-game start since the 1987 edition began the campaign with a 20-7 mark. The Brewers recorded a 4-0 victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday, earning their first home sweep of St. Louis since taking four games in April 2002.

Milwaukee has benefited from a productive offense, scoring 26 runs during its four-game winning streak. Part of that surge is being provided by J.J. Hardy, who extended his career-best hitting streak to 13 games Wednesday with a fourth-inning single and is batting .382 (21-for-55) with five homers and 15 RBI during the run.

Dave Bush (2-2, 6.23 ERA), who is the only Milwaukee starter to lose a start since April 15, will try to reverse his early-season struggles. The righthander looks to rebound from his worst outing of his season - a 10-1 loss to Houston - in which he surrendered eight runs and 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings.

In three of his five starts this season, the righthander has allowed four or more runs. Bush is 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA in two career starts against Pittsburgh.

After pitching very well in his first four starts, Pittsburgh's Tom Gorzelanny (3-1, 3.06) looks to rebound from his worst outing of the season. He allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings Saturday in an 8-1 loss to Cincinnati.

The lefthander had yielded just six earned runs in his first four starts, spanning 26 1/3 innings. In his only career start against Milwaukee, Gorzelanny worked seven strong innings on August 15, allowing just one earned run, but was not involved in the decision.