The Breakdown: Brewers 17 – Pirates 0

Since May 22nd of last year, the Milwaukee Brewers have yet to lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates.  17 games, 17 wins.  Walk-offs, blowouts, pitcher’s duels, and softball scores, there’s been some of everything.  Here’s a look back through the past seventeen.

On May 22nd, 2008, the Brewers dropped the final game of a three-game series with Pittsburgh, 8-4, preventing the Crew from sweeping the Bucs in an early season match-up.

(1-3) – The streak began on the 4th of July, in Milwaukee, with a 9-1 Brewers romp.  The team continued their winning ways with a 2-1 victory Saturday, and an 11-6 sweep on Sunday.

(4-6) – In late August, the Crew had six games scheduled with the Pirates, a series in Milwaukee, and after a quick two-game stop in St. Louis, off to Pittsburgh for three more.  A second straight sweep was shaping up after the Brewers took the first two games in Milwaukee by scores of 10-4 and 6-3.  The sixth straight win was a bit tougher, as the Crew eeked out a 4-3 win.

(7-9) – Less than a week later in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee entered PNC Park, a place that had previously been a house of horrors for them.  This series, however, completely reversed their fortunes, as they dominated the Pirates in three games, winning 3-1, 11-3, and 7-0 (The CC Sabathia no-hitter*)

(10-12) – These three wins may have been the most important of the 17.  In the final week of the 2008 season, and the Crew fighting with the Mets for the NL Wild Card, the Brewers swept the Pirates yet again, thanks to two walk-off home runs, the first by Prince Fielder in the opener to win 7-5, and following a 4-2 victory, Ryan Braun’s Grand Slam gave Milwaukee a 5-1 win and another sweep.

(13-15) – Welcome to 2009, different year, same story.  Despite an offense that gradually scored fewer runs game-by-game, the fifth consecutive series sweep was imminent as the Crew won 10-5, 6-5, and 1-0, the final game being the Yovani Gallardo show, as he threw eight innings of shutout baseball, and hit a home run for the only scoring in the game.

(16-17) – The streak almost didn’t reach 16, as the Brewers found themselves down 3-1 in the 8th inning of the first game of a two-game set in Pittsburgh.  But then Ryan Braun, who didn’t arrive at the ballpark until the 5th inning, hit a 2-run double to knot the game at 3-3.  But the Brewers bullpen gave up the lead in the bottom of the frame, before the Crew again came back to tie it and Rickie Weeks delivered the knockout punch with a 3-run bomb in the 9th to win 7-4.  Following that up, in a game played with rain throughout, Milwaukee stretched it’s streak to it’s current 17 games with a 8-5 win and it’s sixth straight sweep of Pittsburgh.

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