Home run drought ends, but that’s it
Losing streak hits 7; mark drops to 65-89
MILWAUKEE — You can’t just ask, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
The Pirates have struggled scoring runs lately and started Friday without a home run in more than a week, prompting this humorous — but true — answer from Hurdle on how to get more offense out of his club.
“It’s hard to look at a guy and say, ‘Start hitting home runs, would you? We haven’t hit any as a team in six days. Would everybody hit two or three tonight?’ ” Hurdle said. The Pirates got a home run without Hurdle having to ask but ultimately little else, as they lost yet again, their 10-1 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park stretching their losing streak to seven and dropping them to a season-worst 24 games under .500 at 65-89.
The offensive woes persisted for the Pirates, as did their issues fielding the ball and getting any shred of help out of the bullpen.
Kevin Newman made an error that led to two runs in the first, while Yacksel Rios and Williams Jerez weren’t even close to effective when starter Steven Brault encountered trouble in the sixth inning, combining for two walks, a hit batter and two runs allowed.
It wasn’t a recipe for success, especially not against Brewers starter Chase Anderson, who used a terrific changeup to keep the Pirates bats silent in six scoreless innings.
The Pirates now are virtually assured of their first 90-loss season since 2011, when they won just 72 games. They’re 1-6 at Miller Park this season and 26-43 away from home in 2019, their worst road showing since going 17-64 in 2010.
Adam Frazier homered in the top of the seventh inning, driving an elevated twoseam fastball out to right field for his 10th of the season. It was the first home run for the Pirates since Sept. 12 in San Francisco.
It mattered little, though, as the Brewers scored all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first inning, starting with a leadoff walk to center fielder Lorenzo Cain.
The Brewers surged ahead, 1-0, when third baseman Mike Moustakas served a single into left, the opposite way, on a fastball from Brault middle-in.
Left fielder Ryan Braun drove a double to the right-center field gap to give Milwaukee second and third.
It looked like Brault would get out of jam when he struck out second baseman Keston Hiura swinging on a slider in the dirt and worked an 0-2 count to right fielder Hernan Perez.
That’s when the Pirates’ season-long issue with fielding the baseball reared its ugly lead.
Perez hit a grounder to short that Newman should’ve had. Newman’s throw was wide, to the home-plate side of the bag, and Colin Moran didn’t move quickly enough to catch it. Two runs scored, and Milwaukee led, 3-0.
Brault allowed one run to score on a single in the sixth, with the Brewers taking a 4-0 lead.
In the seventh, after Rios and Jerez allowed the Milwaukee lead to balloon to 60, Geoff Hartlieb ran into his own set of issues. He, too, walked the leadoff man, one of four times the Pirates committed that cardinal sin of pitching on the evening.
The Brewers loaded the bases with two singles before Trent Grishman emptied them with his triple into the right-field corner, giving Milwaukee a 9-1 lead.
That the Pirates did so little offensively was likely a surprise to Hurdle. Before the game, the Pirates manager felt pretty good about how they had pre-scouted Milwaukee, figuring out how to make more solid contact.
Of course, anything would be better than last series, when they scored six runs in three games against the Mariners, four of those coming in one inning.
“Why are we not barreling the ball up I think is the appropriate question and the most accurate question,” Hurdle said. “I think we’ve diagnosed why that’s happened. I think we’ve tried to put a plan in place.
“We had one inning of offensive baseball in three games. That’s not acceptable. We did some extensive looking [Thursday] night and [Friday] about how we’re going to attack these guys, what kind of pitcher we’re going to see, and we’ve got a plan. I expect to see better at-bats. I expect to see more barrels show up [Friday].”
Around the horn
Brault lasted 5⅓ innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks with six strikeouts. The Pirates have not had a starting pitcher go six innings since Trevor Williams did it Sept. 4 against the Marlins. … Anderson became the first Brewers starter other than Jordan Lyles to go six innings since Aug. 16. … Newman went 0 for 4, as his hitting streak ended at 13 games. Newman had hit safely in 20 consecutive road games.