Pittsburgh Pirates Fall 12-0, Swept by Milwaukee Brewers

The Pittsburgh Pirates entered tonight’s matchup with a record of 38-63 after losing the first two games of this three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers. The offense was nowhere to be found tonight as the club picked up a mere 3 hits in tonight’s 12-0 loss. After totaling just 3 runs in the series, the Pirates have been swept by the Brewers and fall to 38-64 on the year.

Chad Kuhl took the hill for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night. After striking out a season-high eight batters in his last start in San Francisco, he went 5.1 innings in that start and did so again Thursday night surrendering 3 earned runs on 6 hits. He struck out 5 and walked 1.

Kuhl saw the minimum in the top of the 1st inning but then ran into some trouble in the 2nd. After a Tyrone Taylor double and then a wild pitch to advance him to third, Lorenzo Cain grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Taylor to give the Brewers an early 1-0 lead.

Kuhl looked sharp in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings but his night came to an end in the 6th after allowing an infield single to Willy Adames to begin the inning and a double from Rowdy Tellez to score him. With the score 2-0 Brewers.

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton went to the bullpen in Chris Stratton who surrendered a double to Taylor to bring home Tellez which closed out Kuhl’s night. Kuhl (3-6) will carry a 4.43 ERA into his next start, which will likely be against both the Brewers and mound opponent Freddy Peralta once again, this time in Milwaukee on August 3rd.

Bullpen Struggles

Chris Stratton was first up out of the bullpen for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After allowing the RBI double to Taylor, he then walked Cain and surrendered a three-run home run to Manny Piña to break the game open in the 6th and give the Brewers a 6-0 lead.

Stratton remained in the game in the 7th inning and after retiring the first two Brewers, Tellez hit a 410-foot home run over the notch in left-center to boost Milwaukee’s lead to 7. Stratton’s ERA will inflate from 2.58 to 3.21 after tonight’s rough outing, though he has been a rather stable option out of the bullpen for the most part since his rough start to the year in April.

Nick Mears picked up the final out of the 7th inning and then Austin Davis was called upon to throw the 8th. Cain reached on a Rodolfo Castro throwing error to begin the inning and Piña made the error hurt with his second homer of the night, a two-run shot to center to give the Brewers a 9-0 lead.

Derek Shelton opted to not waste another bullpen arm down 9 runs in the 9th and instead went to first baseman John Nogowski. The Brewers were able to tack on three more runs and would go on to win tonight’s game 12-0.

Offense Falls Silent

The Pirates simply could not find any success against Freddy Peralta tonight or any Brewers’ pitcher throughout the series frankly, as the club was outscored 28-3 in this three-game series. The team combined for just 10 hits over those three games and it seems the club is certainly missing steady production at the top of the lineup after the departure of Adam Frazier. Manager Shelton has looked at his options at the leadoff spot in Kevin Newman, Ben Gamel and Wilmer Difo in the three games since Frazier’s departure but neither of the three have collected a hit in the leadoff role.

What’s Next?

The Pittsburgh Pirates will look to turn things around beginning tomorrow night against the cross-state rival Philadelphia Phillies (51-51). Wil Crowe (5.89 ERA, 5.79 FIP) will take the mound against Philly righty Vince Velasquez (5.54 ERA, 5.59 FIP). First pitch from PNC Park is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET.