Darren Hauck, Associated Press The Brewers' Prince Fielder scores the go-ahead run on a hit by Bill Hall as Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit reaches out with the late tag in the eighth inning yesterday in Milwaukee.

By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MILWAUKEE -- A 6-4 loss to can-do-no-wrong Milwaukee yesterday played out against the undercard of Matt Capps/Prince Fielder II and produced this disappointing bottom line for the Pirates.

It's beginning to look like deja vu all over again. Sort of.

The Pirates' 2006 season was undone by a 1-7 record in the first week of April.

Now, despite all the improvement expected, their 2007 season might be headed for the tank because of a bad first week of May.

The loss was the seventh in nine games for the Pirates (13-17), who for the second time slipped four games under .500.

"It's time to get the trend reversed a little bit," manager Jim Tracy said. "And the players know that."

	Darren Hauck, Associated Press Brewers catcher Johnny Estrada, left, catches a foul popup hit by Adam LaRoche in the fourth inning yesterday in Milwaukee. Click photo for larger image. Tomorrow Game: Pirates (RHP Ian Snell, 2-2, 2.31) vs. Chicago Cubs (Ted Lilly, 2-2, 2.82), 8:05 p.m., Wrigley Field. TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7). Key matchup: Pirates vs. Chicago. One of the favorite cities for players to visit -- especially on an off-day. Activities? Golf, shopping, Rush Street. Of note: Pirates have won eight of their past 13 games at Wrigley despite batting just .226 and scoring 54 runs. The key is their 3.46 team earned run average in those 13 games. Before this recent success, Pirates were 2-10 at Wrigley. Related articles Pirates Notebook: Offense hits dry spells between scores Pirates Q&A with Dejan Kovacevic

Yes, it's early in a long season, but this loss dropped the Pirates 7¹/₂ games behind the first-place Brewers, a good team playing great at the moment. Milwaukee has won 14 of its past 18 games to drive its record to 21-10.

And while the Pirates visit Chicago to play three games against the surging Cubs, the Brewers get the woeful Washington Nationals at Miller Park for three games.

You see the reason for some concern here.

"The Brewers are a solid club, there's no getting around that fact," Tracy said. "They're getting big at-bats in big situations."

None bigger than Bill Hall's in the eighth inning yesterday.

The Pirates, dead in the water through six innings, rallied for four runs to tie the score at 4-4 in the seventh.

John Grabow got through a harrowing bottom of the seventh, but the bullpen wasn't so fortunate in the Brewers' eighth.

Fielder, who homered in his first two at-bats and came a foot or two short of another home run in his third at-bat, opened the eighth with a single to right against Grabow.

"Fielder was very involved [yesterday]," Tracy said.

And he was about to become even more involved.

Johnny Estrada dutifully sacrificed Fielder to second.

With right-handed batting Tony Graffanino pinch-hitting for Geoff Jenkins, Tracy summoned Capps, a right-hander, knowing the Brewers were out of left-handed hitters and that right-handed hitting Hall would most likely bat for Gabe Gross after Graffanino.

"We were right where we wanted to be," Tracy said.

Strategically speaking, anyway.

Capps got Graffanino to fly harmlessly to left field, bringing up Hall.

Capps threw two fastballs by Hall, whose bat seemed slow.

"Either that or he was setting me up," Capps said.

Whatever, Capps threw another fastball up and out over the plate -- "I was a little hesitant to go up and in," Capps said -- and Hall lined it into center field for a single.

Fielder charged toward the plate as Nate McLouth's throw zipped toward catcher Ryan Doumit.

At the last instant, Doumit moved a foot toward the ball, and Fielder slid around the tag to score.

He immediately got to his feet and shouted toward Capps, who hit Fielder with an up-and-in pitch Saturday night.

"I didn't say anything," Fielder said, although replays showed he did -- and it wasn't "Thank you, Matt Capps!"

"I heard him," Capps said. "[Sure], he wants to talk about [Saturday night yesterday]."

"Pretty bush league," Doumit said of Fielder's reaction to scoring the run. "There's no room for that. To do that was bush league, in my opinion."

Capps also yielded another run-scoring single in the inning on Tony Gwynn's line drive to center on an 0-1 pitch.

"I missed with that one," Capps said.

Closer Francisco Cordero easily dispatched the Pirates in the ninth, earning his 12th save.

The Pirates, checked on five hits by Ben Sheets through six innings, woke up in the seventh to make a game of it.

Jose Bautista drew a leadoff walk on a 3-2 pitch. McLouth, pinch-hitting, flew out to right, but Chris Duffy drove a 1-1 pitch over the right-center field wall.

"That got our batteries going a little bit," Tracy said.

Matt Wise relieved Sheets, who had thrown 108 pitches, and promptly walked Wilson on four pitches. Freddy Sanchez singled Wilson to second. After Jason Bay fouled out, usually reliable left-hander Brian Shouse succeeded Wise.

Shouse fell behind Adam LaRoche 2-0. Then LaRoche, whose brother Andy yesterday got his first major-league hit with the Los Angeles Dodgers, did his part for the family by shooting a run-scoring single into right field.

Doumit followed with a single to left, scoring Sanchez and tying the score.

The four runs were one more than the anemic Pirates had scored in 26 innings since a four-run burst in the seventh inning that won Thursday night's game.

"We did a terrific job in coming back," Tracy said, "but it's tough to win when the [few] runs you are scoring are just to get you back in the game."