"The way Zack Greinke mowed down the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first four innings of the Milwaukee Brewers' 9-6 win on Sunday at Miller Park, it looked as though the right-hander was throwing well enough to post not only a complete game, but also quite possibly a shutout.

One inning later, though, Greinke was out of the ball game, a victim of a five-run Pirates fifth that got Pittsburgh right back in it at 6-5.

Greinke faced the minimum through the first four, needing just 49 pitches. But he had problems from the very start of the fifth, beginning with a 12-pitch at-bat turned in by cleanup hitter Neil Walker.

Walker, the Pirates' second baseman, fouled off six pitches before taking an 84 mph slider over the wall in right-center. Greinke then struck out former Brewer Lyle Overbay looking and got Pedro Alvarez to fly out before Pittsburgh really did some damage.

Chris Snyder, Ronny Cedeño and then pinch-hitter Steve Pearce hit consecutive doubles, followed by a triple by Andrew McCutchen and then a single by Jose Tabata that narrowed what had been a comfortable 6-0 Milwaukee lead to 6-5.

Greinke needed 47 pitches to extricate himself from the jam.

"Real good," said Greinke of his first four innings. "That's how it's been every game - feel good to start and then I start to slide a little bit later on. I felt better today, just didn't work out on my part. We played a good game, everyone did good. I need to pitch deeper in the game and stay sharper the whole time."

While Greinke didn't seem to think so, manager Ron Roenicke thought Walker's at-bat was the main reason for his pitcher's undoing in the fifth."