The Milwaukee Brewers continued their dominant season on Friday, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 at PNC Park behind a seven-inning performance from Quinn Priester, who set a franchise record with his 11th consecutive winning decision.
Priester (12-2) allowed two runs on six hits, striking out six and walking one, rallying from a shaky start to retire the final 11 batters he faced in a 96-pitch outing. Priester, acquired from the Boston Red Sox on April 7, was originally the Pirates’ first-round pick in 2019. Since joining Milwaukee, he has posted a 3.25 ERA across 26 games, 21 starts.
The Brewers have now won each of the last 17 games in which Priester has pitched, including 14 starts and three bulk relief appearances dating back to May 30. This surpasses the previous franchise mark of 10 consecutive wins in a season, held jointly by Chris Bosio and Cal Eldred in 1992, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.
Friday’s win was far from easy. Milwaukee went 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position through most of the night but overcame the deficit with timely hitting.
Jake Bauers delivered the game’s decisive blow with a two-run single off Carmen Mlodzinski in the sixth, snapping a streak of 22 hitless at-bats with RISP that stretched back to the Brewers’ win over Philadelphia.
Brice Turang added an RBI single in the eighth, and a combination of Pirates errors and Andrew Vaughn’s contribution in the ninth accounted for the fifth run. Abner Uribe closed the game with a perfect ninth for his fifth save of the season.
The Brewers achieved the victory despite missing star outfielder Christian Yelich and facing injuries in the bullpen, which has seen multiple pitchers, including Trevor Megill, Shelby Miller, Grant Anderson, DL Hall, and Nick Mears, on the injured list. Right-hander Carlos Rodriguez was recalled from AAA Nashville to bolster relief options.
Milwaukee’s offensive leaders on the night included Bauers, Turang, and William Contreras, each with two hits, while the Pirates’ Johan Oviedo allowed just one unearned run over five innings in his fifth start since returning from Tommy John surgery.
The Brewers have improved to 31-11 in their last 42 road games, ending the Pirates’ seven-game home winning streak and maintaining a 5½-game lead in the NL Central over the Chicago Cubs with 20 games remaining.
