Milwaukee escaped with a 4-3 victory over Pittsburgh Friday night at American Family Field, the Brewers ninth win in 11 games against the Pirates this year.

Making his second start since returning from the injured list, Aaron Ashby earned the win by going 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and striking out 3. His lone mistake was a slider at the bottom of the strike zone that Diego Castillo blasted for a 2-run homer.

Milwaukee’s bullpen backed up Ashby’s solid start over the next 3 innings, including Devin Williams pitching a scoreless eighth. He now hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 20 2/3 innings.

Things got interesting in the ninth, though, as Josh Hader struggled for a third straight outing. He was saved by some questionable base running from the Pirates. With two outs, Daniel Vogelbach dropped a single into right field that brought in 1 run but Kevin Newman tried to score from first and was thrown out by a mile to end the game. Hader got his 26th save but has now allowed runs in three straight games for the first time since August 2019.

Oooohh, you gotta be quicker than that.#BrewCrewConnect pic.twitter.com/OmbUTaAPet

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 9, 2022

Offensively, Keston Hiura had a pair of hits and drove in 1 run, while Jace Peterson had the go-ahead RBI with a single in the fourth. Willy Adames would add some insurance with his team-leading 17th home run of the season. Kolton Wong had 2 hits, scored twice and drove in a run with a triple.

Milwaukee snapped a 2-game losing streak and moved to 3.5 games up on St. Louis in the NL Central.

The Brewers and Pirates will meet again Saturday afternoon.