Civale pitches 6 shutout innings, Ortiz has 3 hits in Brewers' 5-2 win over Pirates

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Civale pitched six scoreless innings in his last start before the postseason and Joey Ortiz was a home run short of the cycle as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 on Thursday.

Civale (8-9) allowed three hits, struck out five and walked one. He is 6-1 with a 2.57 ERA in his last nine starts.

“He just continues to impress me as a pitcher,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “In this day and age to see a pitcher like that … he had pinpoint control today.”

Ortiz, a rookie third baseman, tripled in third inning and came home on Brice Turang’s ground out to open the scoring. Ortiz also doubled in a run in the sixth to increase the Brewers’ lead to 5-0.

The National League Central champion Brewers will open a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series at home starting next Tuesday. They finish the regular season by hosting the contending New York Mets in a three-game series that begins Friday night.

Murphy would not commit to having Civale start in the wild-card round but sounded like he is leaning that way.

“I think the fact he’s got some years under his belt,” Murphy said. “He does provide an answer to navigate some innings against any kind of hitters. I think there’s a case for him for sure.”

Civale is just happy to be headed to the postseason after being acquired from Tampa Bay on July 3 in a trade.

“Everything has been good about it,” Civale said of being with the Brewers. “I’m just fortunate to have the opportunity here. I’m just enjoying the ride and taking it start by start.”

The Brewers have won five of their last seven games and went 46-35 on the road this season.

Blake Perkins and Gary Sanchez had two hits each for the Brewers and Turang drove in two runs. Devin Williams pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 14th save in 15 opportunities.

Mitch Keller (11-12) lost his final start of the year, giving up three runs and six hits in five innings in the Pirates’ home finale. After the All-Star break, Keller went 1-7 with a 5.65 ERA in 12 starts.

“Up and down, up and down,” Keller said of his season. “There’s definitely a lot of highlights up there and definitely a lot of lowlights. But overall, a lot of good things to look back on and a lot of things to keep working for. I don’t know, it’s weird. I’m happy with it and also disappointed in some areas too.”

Eric Haase doubled in a run in the fifth inning then scored on Turang’s single to make it 3-0. Milwaukee added to the lead in the sixth on RBI doubles by Perkins and Ortiz.

Bryan De La Cruz broke up the Brewers’ shutout bid with a two-run home run in the seventh inning off Nick Mears, but the Pirates lost for the ninth time in 13 games. They finished with a 39-42 home record.

Nick Gonzales had two hits for the Pirates.

The Pirates had a season attendance of 1,720,321, nearly 100,000 more than last year and their best mark since 2017. Much of the attendance spike was attributable to the emergence of rookie pitcher Paul Skenes.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Brewers: Mears (right forearm inflammation) was activated from the 15-day injured list and RHP Kevin Herget was optioned to Triple-A Nashville.

UP NEXT

Brewers: RHP Frankie Montas (7-11, 4.85) will start Friday night for Milwaukee while the Mets are undecided on a pitcher after being rained out Wednesday and Thursday in Atlanta.

Pirates: RHP Jared Jones (6-8, 4.14) will start the opener of a three-game series Friday night in New York against Yankees LHP Carlos Rodon (16-9, 3.98).

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Bryan De La Cruz (41) is greeted by Nick Gonzales after hitting a two-run home run off Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Nick Mears during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton, left, welcomes Bryan De La Cruz (41) back to the dugout after hitting a two-run home off Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Nick Mears during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Nick Mears delivers during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton stands on the dugout steps during the second inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Liover Peguero has a double hit by Milwaukee Brewers' Joey Ortiz bounce off his glove during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Milwaukee Brewers' Joey Ortiz (3) slides safely into third ahead of the relay throw to Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa with a triple off starting pitcher Mitch Keller during the third inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Milwaukee Brewers' Joey Ortiz celebrates as he stands on third base after hitting a triple off Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller during the third inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Milwaukee Brewers' Joey Ortiz (3) doubles off Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Colin Holderman, driving in a run, during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Aaron Civale delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Aaron Civale delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

NEW YORK (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to carry out “full force” strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border, dimming hopes for a cease-fire proposal put forth by U.S. and European officials.

Israel carried out a new strike in the Lebanese capital, which it said killed a senior Hezbollah commander, and the militant group launched dozens of rockets into Israel. Tens of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese people living near their countries' border have been displaced by the fighting.

Netanyahu spoke as he landed in New York to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting, where U.S. and European officials were putting heavy pressure on both sides of the conflict to accept a proposed 21-day halt in the fighting to give time for diplomacy and avert all-out war.

Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week as Israel dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities. Israeli leaders say they are determined to stop the group's cross-border attacks, which began after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

Israel’s “policy is clear," Netanyahu said. "We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.”

Just before his comments, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah drone commander, Mohammed Hussein Surour, in an airstrike in the suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the claim. The Health Ministry said two people were killed and 15 wounded in the strike.

The strike gutted an apartment in a residential building in Dahiyeh, the mainly Shiite suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence, according to Associated Press photos of the scene.

Over the past week, Israel has carried out several strikes in Beirut targeting senior Hezbollah commanders. One strike in eastern Lebanon on Thursday killed 20 people, most of them Syrian migrants, according to Lebanese health officials.

Israel hit 75 sites early Thursday across southern and eastern Lebanon and launched a new wave of strikes in the evening, the military said. Throughout the day, Hezbollah fired some 175 projectiles into Israel, the Israeli military said. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, sparking some wildfires, though one rocket hit a street in a town near the northern city of Safed.

Israel has talked of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon to drive Hezbollah -- an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is the strongest armed force in Lebanon -- away from the border. It has moved thousands of troops to the north in preparation. Some 100,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the past week, streaming into Beirut and points further north.

The escalation has raised fears of a repeat – or worse – of the 2006 war between the two sides that wreaked destruction across southern Lebanon and other parts of the country and saw heavy Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli cities.

“Another full-scale war could be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after talks with his British and Australian counterparts in London.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at the U.N. meeting with Israeli officials over the truce proposal. Speaking in an interview with MSNBC, he said major powers, the Europeans and Arab nations were united, “everyone speaking with one clear voice about the need to get that cease-fire in the north.”

“I can’t speak for him,” Blinken said of Netanyahu.

Hezbollah has not yet responded to the proposal. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed it, but his government has no sway over the group.

Netanyahu’s office downplayed the initiative, saying in a statement that it was only a proposal.

One of Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners threatened on Thursday to suspend cooperation with his government if it signs onto a temporary cease-fire with Hezbollah – and to quit completely if a permanent deal is reached. It was the latest sign of displeasure from Netanyahu’s allies toward international cease-fire efforts.

“If a temporary cease-fire becomes permanent, we will resign from the government,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power party.

If Ben-Gvir leaves the coalition, Netanyahu would lose his parliamentary majority and could see his government come toppling down, though opposition leaders have said they would offer support for a cease-fire deal.

Hezbollah has insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has battled Hamas for nearly a year. That appears out of reach despite months of negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

One day after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel, bringing Israeli counterfire and a cycle of reprisals that has gone on near daily since. Hezbollah says its barrages are a show of support for Palestinians and that it is targeting Israeli military facilities, though rockets have also hit civilian areas.

Before this week, the cross-border exchanges had killed about 600 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but including more than 100 civilians, and about four dozen people in Israel, roughly half of them soldiers and the rest civilians. The fighting also forced tens of thousands to flee homes on both sides of the border.

Israel says its escalated strikes across Lebanon the past week are targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other military infrastructure. Since Monday, strikes have killed more than 690 people in Lebanon, around a quarter of them women and children, according to local health authorities.

The campaign opened with what is widely believed to be an Israeli attack on Sept. 18 and 19 detonating thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing at least 39 people and maiming thousands more, including civilians.

Hezbollah in turn has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. Several people in Israel have been wounded. On Wednesday, the group fired on Tel Aviv for the first time with a longer-range missile that was intercepted.

Early Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building housing Syrian workers and their families near the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 19 Syrians and a Lebanese were killed, one of the deadliest single strikes in Israel’s intensified air campaign.

Hussein Salloum, a local official in Younine, said most of the dead were women and children. The state news agency had initially reported that 23 people were dead.

Lebanon, with a population of around 6 million, hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.

Mroue reported from Beirut, Lidman from Tel Aviv.

A damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man carries a damaged bicycle at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man carries pictures of his relatives standing at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Displaced children sit in a classroom in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with their families, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced children play in a classroom at a school, in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with their families, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A displaced boy sleeps in a classroom in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with his family, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced youth hug as they take shelter at a school in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south with their families, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people gather in the hallway of a school in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Volunteers distribute clothes to displayed women at a school in Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced women smoke waterpipes as they sit in a school in Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people sit in a school yard in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced women and children sit in a classroom in Beirut, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People run to take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Ali Abdel Rahman Zorout, 5, who was wounded in an Israeli airstrike, poses for a picture at the Alaaeddine Hospital in Sarafand, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Fatima Abdel Rahman Zorout, 7, who was wounded in an Israeli airstrike, is wheeled on a gurney at the Alaaeddine Hospital in Sarafand, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man carries a damaged bicycle at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man stands on top of a damaged car at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A man reacts in a damaged apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

An emergency worker cuts concrete blocks as he searches for survivors at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in the town of Maisara, north of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)