The Milwaukee Brewers dropped the first game of their three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday evening. The Pirates got out to an early lead, and while the Brewers resiliantly fought back more than once, Pittsburgh had an answer at every turn. Brewers starter Chad Patrick set a career high in strikeouts but also allowed nine hits, and a bevy of Pirates bullpen arms did just enough to keep the Brewers at arm’s length.
Patrick had no trouble getting the first two Pirates of the night, but the lowest-scoring offense in the league put together a two-out, first-inning rally to take an early lead. Bryan Reynolds hit a two-out single, and the next batter, Nick Gonzales, hit a cutter into the gap for a double. (Chourio made a diving attempt but couldn’t quite come up with it—the broadcast called it a gamble, but Reynolds would have scored either way.) Patrick got Joey Bart looking to end the inning but he gave up a run and needed 23 pitches to get through it.
Braxton Ashcraft, working as sort of a long opener today, got both Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio to ground out on the second pitch they each saw. Christian Yelich, though, jumped on the first pitch he got and lined a single to right field to extend his modest hitting streak to seven games. William Contreras, though, grounded out, and the Brewers couldn’t muster an immediate answer in this one.
Spencer Horwitz led off the second with a base hit to right and the next batter, Ke’Bryan Hayes, got jammed but dumped a cheap hit over second baseman Brice Turang for another single and Pittsburgh had runners on first and third with no one out. A strikeout of Tommy Pham but Patrick in better position, and another strikeout of Isiah Kiner-Falefa gave Patrick an easy path out of the inning. He needed only one pitch to get Oneil Cruz to ground out to short, and Patrick had worked out of the jam, a potentially big moment early in the game.
Brice Turang and Isaac Collins went down quickly against Ashcraft in the bottom of the second. Caleb Durbin put up more of a fight, but struck out on the tenth pitch, and Ashcraft was through two scoreless.
Patrick struck out Andrew McCutchen and Reynolds to start the third, but Gonzales picked up his second hit with a two-out single. Joey Bart battled for a bit but struck out looking, and Patrick had struck out the side and had seven strikeouts through three innings.
Jake Bauers hit a sharp grounder to first on the first pitch of the third inning but Horwitz made the play for the out. Joey Ortiz fell behind 0-2 and fouled a couple pitches off before flying out to right field. Frelick made pretty good contact on a 1-2 pitch and hit it to left but it held up for Pham and Ashcraft had retired seven straight Brewers.
Patrick got Horwitz for his eighth strikeout to start the fourth, but he walked Hayes and the next batter, Pham, jumped on the first pitch and blasted it off the batter’s eye for a two-run homer—his first of the season in his 53rd game. Kiner-Falefa grounded out back to the pitcher’s mound but Cruz reached on an infield single after hitting a ball up the middle that Turang got to but on which he had no chance to throw Cruz out. McCutchen, up next, got a hold of one but got under it a bit and Collins caught it on the warning track. Milwaukee had work to do, though, down 3-0 heading to the bottom of the fourth.
Ashcraft was pulled after three innings in favor of Hunter Stratton, second in line in what was essentially a bullpen day for the Pirates. The Brewers’ lethargic offense was in need of a spark, and Yelich was doing his best, as his one-out walk put the first runner on since his single in the first. Contreras then knocked a single into left, and the Brewers had two on with one out. Turang was next, and he saw five pitches that were all strikes but fouled the first four off before lining a single into left that scored Yelich.
Collins kept the inning rolling with a high fly ball shallow down the right field line that stayed in the air forever but that Reynolds couldn’t reach—both runners thought it would be caught, so they advanced only a base each and Durbin was up with the bases loaded. Durbin hit a fly ball to center and Contreras was just able to beat Cruz’s 100 mph throw home, and the Brewers had cut the lead to 3-2. Stratton struck out Bauers to end the inning, but he’d needed 34 pitches to finish it—just one fewer than Ashcraft had in his three innings.
The Pirates had an immediate answer, though. Reynolds fell behind 0-2 to start the fifth but worked it to a full count before doubling off the wall—inches from a homer—in the right field gap. Gonzales followed with his third hit of the game, and Reynolds scored, though Frelick did throw Gonzales out at second for the first out (a throw that made Frelick the sole leader in outfield assists across the league). Patrick got Bart to fly out to right and he struck out Horwitz to end the inning, and those nine strikeouts were a new career high. But with 99 pitches through five innings, Patrick’s evening was over, and those nine strikeouts were balanced by nine hits and four runs.
Though he’d just thrown 34 pitches, Stratton was back in the bottom of the fifth. Ortiz lined a high fastball into right (a classic Ortiz swing) to lead off with a hit and give him a seven-game hitting streak of his own. The next batter, Frelick, took a cutter up and in that glanced off his forearm into his bat, and the Brewers had two on with nobody out. Stratton was removed after that—it turns out putting him back out wasn’t a great idea—and replaced by right-hander Chase Shugart, who had to start with two on instead of in a clean frame.
Shugart, though, made a good play to get two outs in one fell swoop. Chourio hit a soft liner right back to him, and he turned and threw back to second base, where Ortiz was easily doubled off. Yelich still had a chance with two outs, and he didn’t waste it. On a 3-0 pitch, Yelich yanked one down toward the right field corner that just stayed fair and just snuck over the wall. Contreras nearly followed with one to almost the same spot, but Reynolds ran it down in the corner and Shugart was out of the inning. But the Brewers’ offense was showing signs of life, and the Brewers had tied it up.
Nick Mears replaced Patrick in the top of the sixth, and he started things by striking out Hayes. But with one out, Pham hit a single and Kiner-Falefa hit what looked like a tennis backhand into the right field corner—Frelick had a little bit of trouble picking up the ball, which allowed Pham to score from first, and IKF ended up at third. With Pittsburgh threatening for another, Mears got pop ups from Cruz and McCutchen to strand the runner at third. The Brewers again failed to get a shutdown inning, though, and the Pirates were back in front, 5-4.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Collins singled when his line drive deflected off of Shugart’s glove. Durbin the nearly hit into a double play but beat the relay throw by a smidge, but it didn’t matter, as Bauers lined out to left to end the inning.
With Milwaukee still down a run, Aaron Ashby was the pitcher in the top of the seventh. Ashby struck out Reynolds, but with one out Gonzales lined a single up the middle for his fourth hit of the night. Ashby fooled Bart with a 2-2 curveball and struck him out looking for the second out. Turang then made a fun defensive play to end the inning; Horwitz chopped a slow roller past the mound and Turang fielded it, looked at first and realized he wasn’t going to get Horwitz, and in one motion fired to third to get Gonzales, who’d been running on the 3-2 pitch to Horwitz and didn’t stop when he put the ball in play. It’s a difficult play to explain, so watch it:
Unfortunately, the Brewers offense couldn’t capitalize on the momentum generated by Turang’s nice play. Shugart faced one more batter and got Ortiz on a fly ball to right before Isaac Mattson entered to face the top of the order. Frelick almost greeted Mattson with a game-tying homer but it didn’t get past the warning track, and Chourio struck out to end the seventh.
Ashby quickly got the first two outs in the top of the eighth but walked Kiner-Falefa on a close ball four in a full count. But he struck out Cruz for the third out, and the Brewers went to the bottom of the eighth still down by just a run.
It was Yelich to lead off the eighth against Mattson. It was quite a battle, but Yelich struck out on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, a fastball up in the zone. Contreras followed with a single through the left side of the infield, and Turang appeared to reach on a swinging bunt. But Pittsburgh challenged that call at first base, and Turang was called out in a somewhat surprising overturn. Still, the tying run was at second, but Collins struck out and the Pirates took their one-run lead to the ninth.
Pat Murphy asked Ashby to work a third inning to give the bullpen a break after Sunday’s marathon. Ashby struck out McCutchen and Reynolds but gave up a double to Gonzales—his fifth hit. The Brewers needed to hold the Pirates, and Ashby held it: he struck out Bart to cap off three scoreless relief innings with his sixth strikeout.
But if the Brewers were going to tie (or win) this game, they’d need the bottom of their order to come through against Pirates closer David Bednar. Durbin did his part by leading off with a single into left. Bauers very nearly ended the game a couple pitches later but hooked a ball about 12 feet on the wrong side of the foul pole in right field, and things went sideways after that. Durbin took off for second base and made it but over-slid the bag and was tagged out. Bauers did manage to draw a walk, and he was replaced by pinch runner Daz Cameron. But Ortiz struck out looking on a curveball he wasn’t expecting, and Frelick flew out to right to end it.
There wasn’t much to be mad about in this one. Chad Patrick wasn’t terrible but gave up some inopportune hits. The offense wasn’t terrible but couldn’t quite get them over the hump. It happens.
Yelich’s hot hitting continued today, as he went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer, a walk, and two runs scored; his OPS is now over .800 for the first time all season. Contreras and Collins each had two hits for the Brewers as well, but the team couldn’t muster any extra-base hits besides Yelich’s homer. Ashby’s performance is worthy of reiteration: he went three scoreless innings, allowed three hits and a walk, and struck out six.
The series continues tomorrow night at 6:40 p.m., when Freddy Peralta takes the hill versus Andrew Heaney.