Sheets tallies complete-game victory

PITTSBURGH -- Ben Sheets made sure the Brewers didn't need a closer on Wednesday night. While Eric Gagne traveled back to Milwaukee for an examination of his ailing shoulder, Sheets shouldered the load for the Brewers, pitching his second complete game of the season for a 4-1 win over the Pirates at PNC Park that guaranteed the team's first series win here in nearly two years. Ryan Braun stayed hot with a go-ahead triple and Rickie Weeks hit a solo home run and scored twice for the Brewers, who won consecutive road games for the first time since April 17-19. They had not won a series in Pittsburgh since taking two of three from the Pirates in August 2006, and on Thursday will try to finish their first-ever sweep at PNC Park. It has been a sudden turnaround for a team that entered the series on a five-game losing streak and a nine-game road skid and was 20-42 at PNC Park since 2001. It has been built mostly around solid starting pitching; Manny Parra worked 5 2/3 scoreless innings in Tuesday's series opener before Sheets twirled his gem on Wednesday. "Huge. Beyond huge," Braun said of the role Parra and Sheets have played. "Coming off that last series [three losses in Boston], we were far from where we wanted to be, and now we have won the series. We want to come out and get the sweep [on Thursday], but this gets us headed in the right direction." The Brewers pulled within two games of .500 at 22-24. But Sheets wants more. "You have to add on," he said. "These two wins are nothing now, because they're done." As encouraging as the Brewers' bounceback has been, it was just as dramatic for Sheets, who worked six shutout innings against the Dodgers in his previous start before surrendering six runs and three home runs in the seventh. He called it the worst inning of his career, and had few answers as to why he suddenly was leaving everything up in the strike zone. "One inning made it look like I was awful in the whole game," Sheets said of his outing against L.A. "I was a little embarrassed by what happened. My main goal today was to get through seven [innings], have that clean seventh and show myself I could do it. Tonight was better than that." Sheets scattered 11 hits in the 15th complete game of his career, including Xavier Nady's fourth-inning solo home run on a hanging changeup. Sheets struck out five, did not walk a batter and threw a season-high 123 pitches. He worked without his dominating fastball, instead relying on low-90s heat for most of the night and throwing a hefty dose of two-seam sinkers. Sheets also was able to throw his signature curveball for strikes. "We've faced him before where he can't get it over the plate and you only have to worry about one pitch," Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche said. "Tonight, he was dropping the curveball in for strikes and then throwing that fastball at 93-94 [mph]. We still got some hits off of him. We just didn't put them together in the same inning." "Anytime a starter can get you deep into a game, it's great," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "Any time he goes nine, wow." Sheets was the beneficiary of a couple of defensive gems. In the sixth, second baseman Weeks was shielded by the umpire and had to handle a high hop, but snared a Nady grounder and initiated a 4-6-3 double play. Center fielder Mike Cameron, who overran a double in the third inning, atoned with a catch at the warning track before crashing into the outfield wall in the fifth. In the eighth, left fielder Braun slid a bit too far into foul territory, but nonetheless made the inning-ending grab. "Your teammates have a lot with you going the complete game, too," Sheets said. "That's what people overlook. They think it's just the pitcher." Sheets struck out six and didn't walk a batter to improve to 4-0 with a 2.29 ERA on the road this season. His back stiffened up while the Brewers sent seven men to the plate and scored a pair of runs off losing pitcher Ian Snell (2-3) in a long top of the fifth inning, but Sheets retired the side in order in the bottom of the frame, getting help from Cameron's defensive gem for the second out. "I felt good," Sheets said. "My back tightened up in the fifth, but it went away. I went back out there and felt great. My arm felt great the whole time, and I think that's a big plus because I threw a lot of pitches [123, a season high]. I felt the same, and that kind of excites me." Snell allowed four runs, two of them earned, in six innings and lost his third straight decision. The Brewers collected nine hits against Snell and two more against Pirates relievers, giving them 52 hits over their last five games. Nine of those belong to Braun, who made some headlines over the weekend when he said the Brewers "didn't expect to win" during their Interleague matchup against the world champion Red Sox. Since Braun spoke his mind, the team is 2-0. "Everybody has been supportive," Braun said. "We talked about it a little bit and everybody was on the same page. We recognized where we were at and nobody was content with where we were at. I think we all recognized that we needed to make a change, and I think over the last few days we have made a change. It's helped. It's shown."

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