The Pittsburgh Pirates fell once again to the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park, 3-1 on Wednesday night, dropping them to .500 for the first time since June 2.

The Bucs could never get their footing after giving up a leadoff home run to Norichika Aoki. Kyle McPherson pitched pretty well after that, going 4⅓ innings while allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk. The 24-year-old certainly wasn't dominant but pitched well enough to leave only trailing by two.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, Marco Estrada was simply sublime for the Brewers. The right-hander improved to 4-6 by throwing seven shutout innings, surrendering just three hits and a walk.

The lone Pittsburgh run came off the bat of Andrew McCutchen, who homered in the ninth inning, his 29th of the year.

With the loss, the Pirates buried themselves further in the race for the second NL wild-card spot, falling two games behind Milwaukee and 3½ games back of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Redbirds are still in progress on Wednesday against the Houston Astros.

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