'Dirtbag' Pirates pursue road sweep of power-starved Brewers

The visiting Pittsburgh Pirates will turn to right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski on Sunday afternoon as they look to complete a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Mlodzinski (1-1, 3.28 ERA) will oppose Brewers left-hander Kyle Harrison (1-1, 3.06).

The Pirates scored three runs in the 10th inning en route to a 6-3 victory Saturday, fueled by RBI singles from Bryan Reynolds and Nick Gonzales. It was Reynolds' 51st RBI in 102 career games against Milwaukee, which lost its fourth straight contest.

The Pirates have clinched their third straight series victory against a National League Central rival this season.

"In division, to be able to win series is really important," Pirates manager Don Kelly said following Saturday's game. "We need to continue to do that, and I think that continuing that gritty, dirtbag style of baseball is what we need to do."

Milwaukee is in last place in the division despite its .500 record.

Mlodzinski lost his last start, allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 5-1 defeat Tuesday at Texas. In the two starts before that, he did not allow a run in 11 1/3 innings.

He has not given up a home run this season in 24 2/3 innings in five games, including four starts.

Mlodzinski will make his first career start against Milwaukee after 12 relief appearances. He is 2-1 with a 3.52 ERA against the Brewers, allowing 11 runs, but only six earned, in 15 1/3 innings.

Gonzales had three hits Saturday to extend his hitting streak to six games. He is batting .458 (11-for-24) over that span, with three RBIs.

"We need to keep earning it. It's a daily thing," Kelly said. "We still need to keep grinding it out and getting after it and continue to earn that respect every day."

Without injured starters Jackson Chourio, Andrew Vaughn and Christian Yelich, the power-starved Brewers have just one home run in their last 10 games, including none in their last six -- their longest streak since six games in July 2015.

"When you're going through a spell where you feel like nothing's going right, it seems like everything backfires," manager Pat Murphy said Saturday. "But there's a lot of great performances I can point out."

Harrison lasted just three innings in his last start, allowing one run on four hits without a decision in a 12-4 win at Detroit on Tuesday. He struck out three but walked three, hit one batter and had a wild pitch in the 72-pitch outing.

Harrison has faced the Pirates once, when he was with the San Francisco Giants, tossing five scoreless innings without a decision in a 3-0 win in 2024.

"The Pirates are a couple games ahead of us, but you'd think they're in first place," Murphy said. "They're playing with such great confidence. They've got a nice team."

--Field Level Media