Brewers fall to Pirates, 5-1
Momentum remains an elusive concept as the Brewers strand 13 base runners and mistakes cost Woodruff.
If you thought the Milwaukee Brewers would use their most scintillating victory of the season Saturday night to build some momentum, you were wrong.
Instead, the offense reverted back to the frustrating form that has plagued the team too often in a quiet 5-1 loss to last-place Pittsburgh at Miller Park on Sunday afternoon.
Instead of pulling within a game of .500 and posting a third consecutive victory, the Brewers dropped to 15-18 for the season with 27 games remaining.
An improbable walk-off victory on Eric Sogard's two-run homer the previous night gave the Brewers victories in the first two games of the four-game series but there were no big hits to be found in this one. Milwaukee went 1for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 runners, bearing no resemblance to the team that scored 16 runs in the first two games of the series.
The Brewers did not go down in order in any inning but, in the end, putting pressure on enemy pitchers does no good if you don't cash in. Otherwise, it's just traffic.
“Yeah, that was the story today,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Every inning, we put guys on. We had some good spots. We had the hitters up we wanted. It just didn't ever play, necessarily. It was a day of pressure but not the big hit.”
Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff has used his changeup often and effectively this season but he put one in the wrong place to Gregory Polanco leading off the second inning and he knocked it
out for a home run. It was the fifth homer of the season, third against the Brewers for Polanco, who otherwise is having a horrible offensive showing.
The Brewers got that run back in the third inning after Luis Urías led off with a single to center and Christian Yelich reached when Josh Bell muffed his grounder to first base. Lefty Steven Brault struck out Jedd Gyorko on a 3-2 slider and induced Ryan Braun to ground into a force at second but Keston Hiura snapped out of his 0-for-12 slide with an RBI single to center.
Counsell said one run wasn’t enough out of a two-on, no-out opportunity.
“I would point to first and second nobody out, with the middle of the lineup coming up, as innings we have to capitalize on more,” he said. “No outs, first and second, that’s when you’re thinking crooked number, a big inning. Those are innings we’ve got to cash in better on.”
It did not stay tied for long. Kevin Newman led off the fourth inning with a single to center and Josh Bell followed by hammering a 1-0 fastball from Woodruff out to right-center and off the hood of the Toyota Highlander on display to put the Pirates on top, 3-1.
Woodruff retired the first two hitters in the fifth but issued walks to Erik Gonzalez and Adam Frazier, and paid for them. Newman singled to left and Gonzalez came around to score as Frazier was thrown out by Yelich trying to go to third.
The Brewers challenged that Gonzalez touched the plate ahead of the out at third, and replays indicated they might have been right. But the call stood, leaving Counsell shaking his head as he retreated to the dugout.
“On that play, to me, it’s that (home plate umpire) CB Bucknor got the call wrong,” Counsell said. “It’s not the replay guys; it’s the home plate umpire got the call wrong.
“I don’t frankly think he was paying enough attention to the call. And so he got it wrong, and then the replay guys -they couldn’t tell exactly when the tag was made. That was my view of it.”
While the Brewers’ offense remained stagnant, the Pirates continued to peck away in the seventh against the bullpen. Alex Claudio allowed a one-out hit by John Ryan Murphy and it led to a run on a two-out single by Frazier off Eric Yardley, putting Pittsburgh ahead, 5-1.
The Pirates and Bucknor tried to giftwrap a rally for the Brewers in the seventh but they weren’t able to take advantage. With two down, Nick Tropeano walked Gyorko and plunked Braun with a pitch.
Geoff Hartlieb took over and hit Hiura to load the bases. Bucknor then missed a two-strike foul tip into the catcher’s mitt that infuriated the Pirates but pinch-hitter Justin Smoak struck out on the next pitch and it stayed 5-1.
As for too many quiet days for his offense, Counsell said, “You know, it’s never gonna be the same guy every day. But the group, as kind of a circle and somebody getting the big hit every day, that’s been elusive.”