Luis L. Ortiz allowed one run on four hits over seven innings and Liover Peguero drove in two runs to lead the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night.
Ortiz (7-8), who picked up his first win since Aug. 31, walked one and while striking out five.
Aroldis Chapman, who was clocked at 104 mph with a fastball that struck out pinch hitter Blake Perkins, garnered his 12th save. The final out was recorded when Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds threw out Willy Adames trying to stretch a single into a double.
Peguero, who played a combined 60 games with Pittsburgh in 2022 and 2023, was making his 2024 major league debut after being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday. He had a two-run double while Isiah Kiner-Falefa had two hits for Pittsburgh (74-84).
Those were the Pirates’ only three hits.
Jake Bauers hit a home run for Milwaukee (90-68), which had a two-game winning streak snapped. The Brewers were eliminated from contention for the National League’s two first-round playoff byes. They will be the No. 3 seed in the NL playoffs and will host a wild-card series next week.
Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta (11-9) allowed two runs on two hits over 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out seven, including Reynolds leading off the bottom of the sixth for his 200th strikeout of the season.
Peralta, who logged a career-high 210 strikeouts in 2023, became the fourth pitcher in Brewers history to have multiple seasons of 200-plus strikeouts. He joined Teddy Higuera (two times), Corbin Burnes (three times) and Yovani Gallardo (four times).
Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead with one out in the second inning when Bauers hit his 12th homer of the season, a 402-foot drive deep into the concourse in right-center.
Pittsburgh rebounded to take a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Yasmani Grandal and Nick Yorke both earned two-out walks before Peguero then drove them in with a line-drive double into the gap in left-center.
The Brewers, who finished with just five hits, stranded runners at third in both the first and fourth innings.
