The Bucs Drop The Final Game In The Series Against The Crew

The Pittsburgh Pirates fall to the Milwaukee Brewers by the score of 4-2 in the final game of a 4-game set. They end up losing 3 games of this series to fall 2 games under .500 on the season. 

Pittsburgh Pirates starter Jordan Lyles got the nod in the series finale after leaving his previous start with hamstring tightness. After 5 days rest, he was able to get back out there. In his last 3 starts, he has an ERA upwards of 7, but wasn’t able to right the ship on Sunday.

Lyles didn’t have a terrible start as walks weren’t an issue, but Eric Thames was. Thames was able to notch 2 hits that surmounted to 3 RBI’s for him as well. This included a 3rd inning home run over the Clemente wall in the 3rd inning. Lyles final line consisted of 4 R/ER on 8 hits, along with 1 walk and 5 K’s. He looks to get back into form in his next start coming up this weekend.

The storyline in this matchup was Brewers starter, Zach Davies. He turned in an 8 inning masterpiece against the Buccos. After coming out in the 9th inning, Davies allowed a leadoff double to Colin Moran, which chased him from the ballgame.

The Brewers turned to Alex Claudio and Corbin Burnes to close it out. Davies allowed 2 R/ER on 8 hits while striking out only 3 batters. He had decent efficiency most of the outing as he was getting a lot of weak contact right to the defense behind him.

Another note in this game is Bryan Reynolds. He was able to tally 2 more hits in this contest including a ringing double late in the game. Reynolds is now batting a scorching .350 to start his big league career. Josh Bell recorded an RBI as well as his league-leading, 21st double. Although he hasn’t looked like himself the past couple days, it is not something to worry about as of right now. Francisco Liriano and Kyle Crick both had a clean inning of work in today’s game.

The Pirates look to go on a winning streak starting Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves. Despite dropping 3/4 from the Brewers, the Bucs are still only 5 games out of 1st place, even with the plethora of injuries.