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PITTSBURGH -- Yovani Gallardo has spent much of his career toying with the Pittsburgh Pirates. On Wednesday night, the Pirates finally found a way to flip the script on their nemesis. Neil Walker laced a two-run single off the Milwaukee right-hander in the sixth inning, Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven strong innings and the Pirates beat the Brewers 3-1 on Wednesday. Gallardo (3-3) came in 7-0 in his last eight starts against the Pirates but was outdueled by Rodriguez and outsmarted by Walker, who guessed right when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. "He has to come to you," Walker said. "He has to throw strikes and if you stay in your own approach and dont go chasing pitchers pitches and more often than not youre going to at least hit a barrel." When the switch-hitting Walker, batting left-handed, saw the cutter he was expecting, he slapped it up the middle for his first RBIs in nearly a month. The second baseman came off the 15-day disabled list with a hand injury on Monday then gave the Pirates the jolt they needed to post consecutive victories over the Brewers for the first time in nearly four years. "These are important moving forward for confidence," Walker said. "But being at home here, we feel like it doesnt matter who we play, we need to take advantage of that home field advantage." The Pirates moved six games above .500 for the first time this season with the victory. Rodriguez (4-2), who was knocked around by the Brewers when he faced them last month, responded by expertly working himself out of trouble spots the first four innings before eventually giving away to Pittsburghs red-hot bullpen. Rodriguez (4-2) gave up six hits, walking one and striking out five then watched Jason Grilli worked the ninth for his National League-leading 16th save. "It was the start we needed, a little bit better than their guy," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "Their guy was good too." Gallardo almost always is when he faces Pittsburgh. He entered the game with a 10-2 lifetime record against the Pirates and was solid enough to make it 11-2 after surrendering three hits over six innings, walking four and striking out four. He just received little help offensively. Rickie Weeks hit his third homer to provide Milwaukees only run. Norichika Aoki had two hits for the Brewers but couldnt stop Milwaukee from falling to 2-10 in its last 12 games. "Guys are giving it all they have," Gallardo said. "Its not like were trying hard. Its just the way the game is, sometimes. Youve just got to keep grinding it out." Milwaukee has dominated the Pirates over the last six years, winning 73 per cent of the meetings between the two clubs and knocked Rodriguez around during his last start against the Brewers two weeks ago. The left-hander was rocked for seven runs in 4 2-3 innings of an eventual 10-4 loss on April 29. Things were decidedly smoother this time around. Working both sides of the plate, Rodriguez kept the Brewers off balance and buckled down when pressed. Milwaukee put runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings but had nothing to show for it. No missed opportunity loomed larger than the one the Brewers created in the fourth when Jonathan Lucroy led off with a triple to right. Rodriguez induced Carlos Gomez and Weeks to hit harmless infield flies before Alex Gonzalez rolled a routine grounder to shortstop to end the threat. "He picked it up and laid it down for us and he battled from start to finish," Hurdle said. Gallardo was just as sharp. Pittsburgh managed just one hit through the first six innings before Starling Marte doubled to centre leading off the sixth. Andrew McCutchen and Gaby Sanchez worked one out walks to load the bases to set up Walkers tiebreaking single. The hit ended an 0-for-23 skid with runners in scoring position by the Pirates and was just enough to deal Gallardo a rare loss to Pittsburgh "The pitch was off the plate and below the knees," Gallardo said. "Sometimes, youve got to tip your cap to the hitter. I threw it where I wanted to throw." Weeks drew the Brewers within a run in the seventh with a homer to the bleachers in left field off Rodriguez but baseballs best one-two punch out of the bullpen shut the door. Set-up man Mark Melancon retired the Brewers in order in the eighth and Grilli did the same in the ninth as Pittsburgh remained undefeated (17-0) when leading after seven innings. The Pirates gave Grilli a little extra cushion in the eighth when McCutchen scored from third after Weeks threw wide of first after making a diving stop on a grounder by Walker. NOTES: Pittsburgh recalled INF Jordy Mercer on Wednesday after placing John McDonald on the 15-day disabled list with a bad back. Mercer started at shortstop and went 1 for 2 ... The Brewers plan to call up veteran reliever Francisco Rodriguez on Thursday. The 31-year-old Rodriguez signed a minor-league deal with the Brewers in April. The four-time All-Star went 2-7 with a 4.38 ERA in 78 games with Milwaukee in 2012 ... ... Umpire Fieldin Culbreth worked at third base on Wednesday night. He left Tuesday nights game after being struck in the neck with a ball ... The series concludes on Thursday. Hiram Burgos (1-1, 6.86 ERA) starts for the Brewers against Pittsburghs Francisco Liriano (1-0, 1.69). Brendan Perlini Jersey . A forerunning sled crashed into the worker Thursday at the Sanki Sliding Center. The unidentified worker broke both legs and was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Anders Hedberg Jersey . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. https://www.cheapcoyotes.com/238z-connor-murphy-jersey-coyotes.html . - NASCAR announced a 33-race schedule for the 2014 Nationwide Series with virtually no changes from this years slate. Jeremy Roenick Jersey . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. Phil Kessel Jersey . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. By Reid SpencerNASCAR Wire ServiceJimmie Johnson has been there before -- more than any other driver in the past two decades.But this trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway for Sundays Ford EcoBoost 400 (2:30 p.m. ET) is different. In the first place, Johnson has his first opportunity to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship under the 16-driver elimination format introduced by the sanctioning body in 2014.Beyond that, in what is the transcendent story of this years Chase, Johnson has a chance to win a seventh series title, one that would tie him for the all-time lead with NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.And crew chief Chad Knaus has been with the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for every mile of the journey -- well, almost every mile, the occasional suspension notwithstanding.Yeah, its a little different for sure, Knaus said of the elimination format. Obviously weve been able to go down to Homestead and bid for the championship in a lot of different scenarios, with a points deficit, with a points lead, and this is definitely unique, starting at zero and just going out there for the best man to win. Im comfortable with it. Im looking forward to it.Quite honestly, I think the Lowes Chevrolet has been fast over the course of the last handful of weeks. Our pit crew has been performing very well. Jimmie is very comfortable and in a good state of mind. Im really excited about it. Im looking forward to getting down there for sure.Knaus could tie Richard Pettys long-time crew chief, Dale Inman (another NASCAR Hall of Famer) with seven titles with the same driver. In fact, continuity has been the hallmark of the No. 48 teams effort since day one.Whats really cool about it is, if we were able to pull this off, it would be seven titles with the same driver, same crew chief, same sponsor (Lowes) and same team, which would be even more phenomenal, Knaus said. Its been an honor to be able to work with Jimmie, Lowes and Hendrick Motorsports throughout this portion of my career. Looking forward to it extending a long time.But being able to represent this company and our associates the way that we have has been a lot of fun. To Jimmie personally, obviously he is by far one of my best friends, and to be able to have seen him grow and mature into the driver and the family man that he is has been awesome. Its been a great ride.A seventh title for Johnson, however, is far from a given. Joe Gibbs Racing has two entries with defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, and they have two sets of data to use in preparation for the Championship 4 race.Additionally, Edwards participated in a tire test at Homestead in October, and crew chief Dave Rogers feels that gives his driver a slight edge over his teammate.Yeah, I think testing there is an advantage, Rogers said. We talked early in the seasoon about which teams want to test where, and then we all agreed on which teams would test at each track.dddddddddddd It was important for Carl and I to test at Homestead because we do think its an advantage. Its absolutely open notebook. All of our teammates have every bit of data.I took my personal notes, what I thought, things I saw, when the clouds came in, when the rain showers came in, how I thought it affected the race car beyond what you see in the data, and I gave that to all of our crew chiefs, including Adam (Stevens, Buschs crew chief). So they have that information.But its the personal experience. Its living it. Its seeing the cars with your own eyes. Its seeing the expression in the drivers face. That live experience, theres something to it. I think our teammates are going to get 85 to 90 percent by looking at our notes and looking at our data, but that extra 10 percent is just being there and living through it.Stevens, on the other hand, feels he can rely on the data gather by Edwards and Rogers.With regard to the test, in my eyes theres really not much difference from my perspective of being at the test or having a teammate go, said Stevens, who won the title last year in his first year as Buschs Sprint Cup crew chief. The biggest benefit from acquiring the test data is literally getting the track data from the car and the driver to use to develop our simulation tools.We could have sent anybody down there to do that. Certainly Carl and Dave gathered that information for us and shared everything they could to help make our program as good as it can be. Would it have been nice to go? Yes. But that also takes away from preparing for that weeks event. As tight as the schedules are, you kind of have to balance that out and spread that workload out amongst the teams.Joey Logano didnt participate in the Homestead tire test, but he has performed admirably on tracks that have featured the same tire codes as the ones in use at Homestead this weekend. Logano was runner-up in the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway and finished second to Edwards at Texas.We led a lot at Texas, Loganos crew chief, Todd Gordon said. I felt like we were very strong there. Finished second to Carl on a rain-shortened race. Id have loved to have seen where that race went. But I feel very strong about our chances going forward here. I feel really good about the improvements weve made.I felt like at Charlotte we had speed, and we had a tire failure, but showed some of that. We finished well and were second at Chicago on the same tire. We were second at Texas on this tire that weve got at Homestead. I feel like weve been able to battle for it, and were continuing to make our stuff better. I love our chances going to Homestead. ' ' '