PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Brewers pounded a couple of homers and survived a one-hour and 50-minute rain delay to beat the Pirates 8-5 in the opener of a four-game series at PNC Park Thursday. The five runs by the Pirates marks the most since April 22 at the Angels. Ironically they were tied with the Angels for an MLB record of 26 games scoring less than five runs.
“Honestly, five's not the goal,” said Pirates manager Don Kelly. “We want to keep on going and score more than that. I'm sure there was some awareness of it, but it wasn't talked about. We weren't going in there trying to score five. I guess in a sense, glad it's over, but it wasn't something we were really talking about or striving to do. We want to go out there and score more than five."
Christian Yellich had his 11th career multi-homer game driving in four runs. Sal Frelick drove in a pair as the Brewers only left three on base. Pirates managed nine hits, leaving 10 on base.
Mike Burrows
His first start at PNC Park and second of his MLB career, the righty ultimately gave up four runs all driven in by homers. A 356-foot, towering fly ball homer to left by Yelich and a 382-foot solo shot to Joey Ortiz. After the Ortiz dinger, Burrows faced one over the minimum the next three innings. Overall, 77 pitches/49 strikes, five innings, four hits, four runs, two walks and three strikeouts.
“I felt good, I just got behind in a couple of counts,” Burrows said. “The walk hurt, the base-hit I wasn’t concerned about and then the ball I thought I beat Yelich with ended up being a backside ball that just cleared the wall in left. Not much you could do about that.”
"Spraying a little bit early on,” Kelly said. “He had the walk, base hit and then the fastball leaked out over that Yelich took the other way. But after that, the first second inning, kind of falling behind a little bit. Fell behind Ortiz there and he got a fastball. I think the Brewers are pretty aggressive on his heater and didn't miss on those swings. But he settled in and the last three innings did a really nice job of settling down, using all of his pitches and getting ahead in the count."
1st home dinger
In his 18th at bat as a Pirate and just his ninth at PNC Park, Spencer Horwitz hit a 409-feet no-doubter to right-centerfield. He also drove in the fifth run with a fielders’ choice in the ninth. Horwitz has played a solid first base and is hitting .278.
"Good at-bats,” Kelly said. “Squaring balls up. Obviously the home run today was impressive. Having really good at-bats. He hit the double-play the other day that was a rocket right at the second baseman. He continues to have at-bats like that. He's a really good hitter and we've seen what he can do on defense as well."
It’s the first meeting of the season, but the last time the Bucs won a series against Milwaukee was 2018.
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Notes
· Bryan Reynolds has been on base or driven in a run in 6 straight games
· Andrew McCutchen walked three times moving into 75th place all-time with 1,139 career bases on balls
· AAA Indianapolis lost a doubleheader to Toledo 2-1 and 5-0 combining for 6 hits in the two games
· High A Greensboro beat Asheville 8-6 improving to 29-13 on the season
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It’s a Paul Skenes (3-5, 2.44 ERA) Friday and he’s facing another great pitcher in the National League, Brewers Freddy Peralta (5-3, 2.59 ERA). Dan Zangrilli starts the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show at 5:45p on 93.7 The Fan.