Pirates take series from Brewers

Martin Maldonado, called up earlier this week to replace injured catcher Jonathan Lucroy, hit a solo shot in the seventh for his first major league home run, and got Milwaukee within one.

“It’s tough to lose but I really do like the way we played,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. “I thought it was a good ballgame. They just did a little bit better job.”

The Pirates took two out of three in the series for their first winning series in Milwaukee since April 2010.

“It’s good to get a series win but to make it anything more than that, I’m not going to be jumping around, dancing in the streets,” Hurdle said. “We expect to win series when we go on the road, just like we do at home. We know the history and it is nice to do it, I get that.”

The Brewers are 59-21 against the Pirates since 2007.

McDonald led off the fifth inning with a single, and scored on McCutchen’s homer. Jones later made it 4-2 Pirates by homering for the second day in a row.

Rod Barajas added a solo homer in the top of the sixth.

Brewers starter Michael Fiers (1-1) gave up four runs and eight hits with eight strikeouts and a walk in five innings in his second big league start.

Nyjer Morgan homered for the second time in three days for Milwaukee, taking McDonald deep in the sixth, after ending a streak of 138 plate appearances without a homer — or RBI — to start the season on Friday night. 

With two outs in the first, Taylor Green hit an RBI double and Rickie Weeks singled in a run against McDonald, who struck out Cody Ransom to end the inning.