Blunders cost Pirates as Brewers win 94th game

PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was something Pirates manager Don Kelly said before Tuesday night’s game that rang so true after the Brewers beat the Pirates 5-1 on Roberto Clemente Day with the Bucs elimination number down to four.

Kelly was essentially asked by Associated Press reporter Will Graves what makes the Brewers so good year-after-year in a market size comparable to Pittsburgh?

“I think it's the consistency in the pitching and how they get after it on the mound,” Kelly said pregame on Tuesday. “They play clean baseball and they put pressure on you: bunting, hit and runs, stealing, doing all the little things that we continue to talk about or we need to get better at.”

And it was just those things that Milwaukee did and the Pirates did not that was the difference.

Bottom 4

• It would have tied the game, first and second with one out and a ground ball by catcher Rafael Flores tipped off the glove of the Brewers third baseman as he dove to his left, it eluded the shortstop and rolled into the outfield, which would have allowed Nick Gonzales to score. Gonzales rounded third hard but after a quick one windmill, third base coach Tony Beasley appeared to hold Gonzales to his apparent frustration. Ryan O’Hearn was on his way to third base, skidded to a stop halfway there and was tagged out by the shortstop for the second out. Spencer Horwitz would then fly out to end the inning with no runs scored.

Top 6

• Gregory Soto, who allowed the tying run to score Saturday in Chicago with a walk and the winning run to score on a hit batter, walked the leadoff hitter.
• A Soto wild pitch allowed Bryce Turang to score to make it 2-0
• After a double drove in a run, with runners at second and third, righty hitter Joey Ortiz rocketed a ball past a drawn-in Nick Gonzales for a two-run single. It would have been a good play. Gonzales is not a third baseman by trade, but playoff teams find a way to at least knock the ball down, 5-0 Brewers

Bottom 7

• Pirates started the inning with a walk and infield single, but three straight outs, two hard hit to the outfield and a ground ball left both runners stranded.

Lowe bright spot

• The only run scored on a Brandon Lowe home run, his 30^th of the season, increasing his record for Pirates second basemen. It’s also on the day he was recognized as the team’s representative for the Roberto Clemente Award.

Other notes

• While making a couple of above-average sliding plays in centerfield, Oneil Cruz was booed as he struck out 4 times looking
• Only two other Pirates runners got to third base, Gonzales and in the ninth, Rafael Flores.
• Pirates pitchers combined to walk 6 and hit a batter.
• Pirates hitters struck out 10 times and left 10 on base.

Up Next

Game 2 of the series with RHP Jared Jones (4-6, 4.10 ERA), 17 strikeouts over 13 scoreless innings in his last two starts, for the Pirates against Brewers RHP Logan Henderson (10-3, 2.34 ERA). Dan Zangrilli starts the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show at 5:45 with first pitch at 6:40 on 93.7 The Fan.