The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates for their ninth straight win on Thursday, by a final score of 7-2. The Brewers drew first blood when Jace Peterson hit a three-bagger in the top of the second inning that scored Tyrone Taylor. Peterson was brought around on a Jackie Bradley Jr double. Pittsburgh came within a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 2-1, which is as close as they got the rest of the way.

In the sixth inning, Taylor and Peterson scored their second runs of the game in the sixth inning. Keston Hiura hit an RBI line drive single that scored Taylor and Daniel Robertson’s RBI sac fly brought Peterson across the plate. After heading into the ninth with a 4-1 lead, Milwaukee put the game out of reach with three runs. In the explosive inning, Omar Narvaez doubled and brought around Robertson for his first run of the day. Also in the ninth, Taylor hit a two-RBI single that scored Christian Yelich and Narvaez. 

Pittsburgh’s ninth-inning comeback attempt scored just a run in the bottom of the ninth. The win moves Milwaukee’s record to 49-33 and they are now 6.5 ahead of the Cubs for first place in the NL Central division. Milwaukee plays in Pittsburgh on Friday for game two of the four-game series with the first pitch being thrown at 6:05 PM.