Alvarez homers, Liriano sharp on mound, help Pirates to 8th straight win, 2-1 over Brewers

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have won eight games in a row, and fans are starting to notice.

After all, the Pirates own the best record in all of baseball.

Pittsburgh beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 on Saturday night in front of its fifth straight sellout crowd at home. The Pirates have never had that many consecutive capacity crowds since moving into their new ballpark in 2001.

Long the third-most popular team in a three-team town behind the NFL's Steelers and NHL's Penguins, the Pirates are suddenly becoming a hot ticket.

"The energy of the crowds has been unbelievable and we've been soaking it all up," said Pirates closer Jason Grilli, who earned the save. "You absorb it and try to use it to your advantage. We're playing for ourselves but we're also playing for about 40,000 people in the stands and an entire city.

"People are dusting off their Pirates shirts and coming out in droves, and we're trying to give them what they want to see."

Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones homered, and Francisco Liriano pitched six strong innings to lead the surging Pirates.

Jones hit a drive to the shrubbery in straightaway center field, his seventh homer, to lead off the fourth inning and increase the Pirates' lead to 2-0.

That was enough for Liriano (7-3), who improved to 4-1 in five home starts this season.

"We're having fun, we're playing hard and we're giving everything we have," Liriano said.

Liriano gave up one run and seven hits in six innings with one walk and six strikeouts. Tony Watson, Mark Melancon and Grilli each pitched one scoreless inning of relief. Grilli recorded his 27th save in 28 opportunities.

"Frankie, for as efficient as he was in giving up one run, there were only about six or seven sequences where he threw back-to-back strikes," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "But when he needed to make a pitch, he made a pitch."

"He's our guy," Hurdle said. "He was well-rested and I wasn't the least bit nervous about going to him."

Donovan Hand (0-1) allowed both home runs but turned in a solid five-inning performance in his second major league start.

Hand was pleased with his outing, except for the home run to Alvarez that cleared the right-field stands, hit a tree and bounced into the Allegheny River.

"I tried to go up and in and left a fat pitch over the middle in his hot zone, and he crushed it," said Hand, who pitched 4 2-3 scoreless innings in his first start June 28 against Atlanta. "I was aggressive, which is exactly what I wanted to do, just building off of the last start because they swing it a lot."

Hand has made a good impression on Brewers manager Ron Roenicke.

Carlos Gomez had two hits for the Brewers, who lost their fifth straight game. He singled with one out in the sixth inning and scored Milwaukee's run on Yuniesky Betancourt's single with two outs.

Brewers shortstop Jean Segura extended his hitting streak to 11 games, but second baseman Rickie Weeks' run ended at a career-best 13 games.

Pittsburgh has won four straight games against Milwaukee and eight of 10 after losing nine in a row.

"We're playing good baseball," Hurdle said. "It's nice to get to 50 wins but we're just trying to meet the demands of the game, honestly self-evaluate and get better every day. There is still a long way to go."