Chris Narveson pitched six strong innings and Corey Hart scored a pair of runs as the Milwaukee Brewers snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.

With closer Trevor Hoffman taking some time off to iron out his mechanics, right-hander Carlos Villanueva got the call in the ninth inning for the Brewers and did not allow a hit in a scoreless frame to earn his first save of the season.

Milwaukee grabbed two runs in each the second and the fourth innings off Pirates starter Paul Maholm. Hart plated the first run with an RBI triple in the second and came in to score on Gregg Zaun's groundout.

George Kottaras, who entered the game at catcher when Zaun was removed with a sore shoulder, doubled in the tying run in the fourth, and Hart scored the go-ahead run on Adam Stern's groundout two batters later.

The Pirates jumped on top early, getting to Narveson for three runs in the first. With runners on first and third with two outs, Steve Pearce, who had three hits on Wednesday, tripled to deep left-center to drive in two. Andy LaRoche followed with a double to cap the big frame.

But Narveson (4-1) buckled down after that, allowing three hits over the next five scoreless innings. The left-hander pushed his record to 3-1 since entering the Brewers rotation on April 28.

Maholm (3-4) lasted seven innings, yielding four runs and four hits while walking three and striking out seven to suffer the loss.