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PITTSBURGH – Gerrit Cole pitched six effective innings, Pedro Alvarez homered and the Pittsburgh Pirates swept Milwaukee 5-2 Sunday, leaving the Brewers with their worst start in team history.

Milwaukee dropped its fifth straight game and fell to 2-10, the poorest record in the majors.

Cole (2-0) improved to 9-1 in his last 10 decisions at PNC Park, and has won six straight overall. He gave up two runs and struck out six.

Alvarez hit his fourth homer of the season, Josh Harrison had two hits and Chris Stewart added a two-run single in the sixth off Matt Garza (1-2).

Pittsburgh has won five of seven, including three in a row over Milwaukee, to get back to .500 after losing its first three games of the season. Mark Melancon worked the ninth for his second save.

Jonathan Lucroy had two of Milwaukee’s six hits. Garza surrendered five runs in six innings.

The Pirates began the series hitting just .207 as a team, the lowest in the National League. That number improved to .222 after a weekend in which Pittsburgh outscored the reeling Brewers 17-7.

Milwaukee’s shaky play did little to help Garza. An error, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Andrew McCutchen put the Pirates ahead 2-0 in the first.

Milwaukee evened it in the second on a run-scoring groundout by Jean Segura and an RBI single by Lucroy but the Brewers could get little else going against Cole.

The hyper-intense righty is growing into the staff cornerstone the team envisioned when it selected him with the top overall pick in the 2011 draft, particularly when he pitches at home.

Cole is now 6-0 with a 3.06 ERA in his last eight starts overall dating to last September and is 13-6 at PNC Park since making his debut on June 11, 2013.

The Brewers offered little resistance after the second. Cole struck out four in a row at one point and allowed just one baserunner over his final four innings. That was plenty of time for Pittsburgh to get to Garza.

Alvarez hit a solo homer into the Milwaukee bullpen behind the center field fence in the third to put the Pirates up 3-2 in the third.

Pittsburgh added on in the sixth, though it came at a price. Garza hit Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer with a pitch while Mercer was attempting to bunt. He left with rib discomfort and was replaced by Jung Ho Kang, who scored along with Alvarez on a sharp single to left by Stewart.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: Pitcher Charlie Morton will likely make one more start in an extended spring training game before a decision is made on when he could return to Pittsburgh. Morton is recovering from hip surgery.

UP NEXT

Brewers: Milwaukee begins a weeklong homestand on Monday when it starts a four-game set against Cincinnati. The Brewers went 9-10 against the Reds last season and haven’t beaten Cincinnati in a season series since 2006. Wily Peralta is 3-3 with a 2.88 ERA in six starts versus the Reds.

Pirates: Pittsburgh opens a four-game series with the Chicago Cubs tonight. The Pirates are 14-6 against the Cubs over the last two seasons at PNC Park. A.J. Burnett (0-1, 2.25 ERA) gets the start. Burnett is 7-4 with a 3.25 ERA in 13 career starts against Chicago.

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CINCINNATI – The liner seemed to dart at the last moment, deflecting off the end of Gregory Polanco’s glove in right field for a game-ending error.

The whole series went that way for the Pirates.

Joey Votto added to his resurgent series with his first homer since last May 10, and Polanco’s misplay in the ninth inning on Thursday sent the Cincinnati Reds to a 3-2 victory and a season-opening sweep.

The Reds improved to 3-0 for the first time since 2011, when they won their first five games. The Pirates hadn’t lost their first three games of a season since 2006, when they started 0-6 on the road.

All three games were close until the end.

“It’s been exciting,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve just got to find a way to connect the dots a little better on offense with more consistency.

“Overreaction is not the proper reaction in sports, or in life.”

This one came down to a hanging pitch and a sinking liner.

Votto hit a tying two-run homer in the sixth inning. The NL’s Most Valuable Player of 2010 didn’t play after July 5 last season because of strained muscles above his left knee. He was 5 for 14 with four RBIs in the series.

“It comes back to leaving one ball over the plate,” said starter A.J. Burnett, who hung a breaking pitch to Votto. “I wanted it down a little more. He got enough of it to get it over the wall.”

Todd Frazier led off the ninth with a double off Rob Scahill (0-1) and advanced on Devin Mesoraco’s groundout. After Jay Bruce was intentionally walked, Polanco moved into position to catch Byrd’s liner and make a throw home. The sinking ball went off his glove.

“Just at the last second …” Polanco said. “I wanted to try and stay with it and make the throw home. I knew he could tag. But that happened.”

Aroldis Chapman (1-0) fanned two of the three batters he faced in the ninth.

Pedro Alvarez singled, homered and scored twice for the Pirates, who wasted leads in each of the last two games.

All three games had rain delays, with Thursday’s featuring a 1-hour, 14-minute break in the middle of the fourth inning. The three delays totaled 4 hours, 23 minutes.

The first pitch on Thursday came less than 12 hours after Votto’s RBI single in the 11th inning gave Cincinnati a 5-4 victory at 1:26 a.m.

Anthony DeSclafani made his first start for the Reds and gave up five hits over six innings. Polanco’s infield single with the bases loaded scored Alvarez in the fifth. Alvarez had a solo homer in the sixth for a 2-0 lead.

Burnett, who lost an NL-leading 18 games last season with the Phillies, made a solid start in his return to the Pirates. He gave up four hits and fanned seven in 5 1-3 innings.

RAIN MEN

Each of the three games in the series had a rain delay. The three delays totaled 4 hours, 23 minutes. Last season, there were 15 rain delays at Great American Ball Park lasting 18 hours, 11 minutes.

LOVE THE PLACE

Alvarez’s homer was the 134th by the Pirates at Great American, the most by any visiting team in the park’s 13-year history. Also, Pittsburgh has won 49 games there, the most by an opponent.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: Josh Harrison was hit in the lower back by DeSclafani’s pitch in the fifth but stayed in the game.

Reds: No decision has been made on where Homer Bailey will make his rehab start on April 12. He’s recovering from surgery on his right forearm last September.

ON DECK:

Pirates: Jeff Locke starts the opener of a series in Milwaukee. He’s 2-2 in seven career starts against the Brewers.

Reds: Jason Marquis makes his first start in the majors since July 19, 2013, facing the Cardinals. He had Tommy John surgery in 2013 and pitched in the Phillies’ farm system last year.

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Follow Joe Kay on Twitter: twitter.com/apjoekay

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.