Red-hot right-hander Trevor Williams pitched six scoreless innings, and Starling Marte hit a two-out, two-run double Saturday as the Pittsburgh Pirates played spoiler with a 3-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Milwaukee (88-67), which had a two-game winning streak halted, is now 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the National League Central.

The St. Louis Cardinals gained a game on the Brewers, who hold the top NL wild-card spot. Milwaukee is two games ahead of St. Louis.

Richard Rodriguez, Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez (36th save) each pitched an inning of relief to preserve the five-hit shutout for Pittsburgh (78-75), which has won six of seven. The Pirates are 12-6 against Brewers going into the season series finale Sunday.

The Pirates, who need four wins to finish with a winning record, can continue to affect the division outcome with four games against the Cubs starting Monday, while the Brewers' next series is against St. Louis.

Williams (14-9) continued his torrid second half. He allowed four hits in his six innings, with seven strikeouts and one walk. He has an ERA of 1.00 over his past 12 starts.

Against Milwaukee this season, Williams pitched 19 scoreless innings with seven hits allowed in three starts.

Milwaukee right-hander Zach Davies (2-7), the first of seven Brewers pitchers in the game, gave up two runs and four hits with three strikeouts and one walk. He was pulled after four innings.

Williams started a two-out rally in the third with an infield hit. Adam Frazier singled to center, moving Williams to second. Marte drove them both in with a double down the line in left for a 2-0 Pirates lead.

In the eighth, Josh Bell singled but was erased on Corey Dickerson's fielder's choice. Jordan Luplow walked. Colin Moran's single to left increased Pittsburgh's lead to 3-0.

--Field Level Media