Pittsburgh Pirates Held to One Hit in 6th Straight Loss Against Milwaukee

The Pittsburgh Pirates are now 0-5 against the Milwaukee Brewers this season and have lost 6 games in a row against the Brewers dating back to last season

The Pittsburgh Pirates struggling against the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s a story as old as time. Last season the Pirates were 5-14 against the Brewers. This continued what has been 15+ years of struggles against the Brew Crew.

Following a 3-1 loss on Wednesday night at PNC Park, the Pirates are now 0-5 against the Brewers this season. They have now lost 6 in a row against Milwaukee dating back to last season. Pittsburgh is now 8-10 overall this season, but own a .613 winning percentage against everyone but the Brewers.

Derek Shelton finally goes to an opener… and it works

Through the first 17 games of the season the biggest problem for the Pittsburgh Pirates has been their starting rotation. This has led to multiple people calling for the team to go to an opener. Wednesday night Derek Shelton did just that with great success.

Dillon Peters started for the Pirates as their opener and continued his early season success. Peters faced 7 batters, retiring 6 of them. He did not allow a hit and walked a batter in his 2 scoreless innings pitched.

On the season Peters has now pitched 12.1 scoreless innings. He’s walked 5 batters, allowed just a single hit and has struck out 8. Peters now has a 0.00 ERA and a 2.09 FIP on the season. Hopefully, this will make Shelton more willing to go to an opener moving forward.

Bryse Wilson turns in best outing of the season

After struggling in his first three starts of the season, Bryse Wilson was bumped for Peters as a closer. Wilson would take over on the mound in the 3rd inning and go on to turn in his best outing of the season, and on of his best since joining the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 4 scoreless innings pitched Wilson allowed just 1 hit. He did not walk a batter and struck out 4. Both his 4 strikeouts and 7 swings-and-misses were a season high for Wilson. Could Shelton and the Pirates have found a new role for Wilson? It’s certainly possible.

Pirates breakthrough in the 6th

Entering the 6th inning neither team had a run. Fittingly, long-time Pirate killer Kolten Wong doubled with one out in the top half of the inning for Milwaukee’s first hit. However, Wong was stranded on base.

Diego Castillo would draw a walk to start the bottom half of the inning before going to third base on a Bryan Reynolds single that deflected off of the glove of Brewers third baseman Mike Brosseau.

Ke’Bryan Hayes then hit a ball that appeared to be ticketed for center field. Instead, Wong made an incredible diving stop, flipping the ball to Willy Adames with his glove to start an incredible 4-6-3 double play. While it robbed Hayes of a hit and a RBI, it did allow Castillo to score making the score 1-0 Pirates.

This play by Wong proved to be huge and was arguably the biggest play of the game. Without it the Pirates may have been in line for a big inning. Due to his play, however, the Pirates were held to just 1 run which would prove to be costly.

Pirate lead is short-lived

Few relievers in the National League have been more dominant to start the season than Wil Crowe. One could say Crowe was in for a poor outing, one could also say that outing came Wednesday night. Although, Crowe was also hurt by some poor luck.

After Christian Yelich singled to start the inning Hunter Renfroe had a weakly hit 75 MPH single, putting runners on the corners with no one out. Rowdy Tellez then reached on an error by Yoshi Tsutsugo that allowed Yelich to score, tying the game at 1. After a Tyrone Taylor single gave the Brewers a 2-1 lead, Crowe put a foot down.

Crowe got a strikeout, groundout and a pop out to shallow left field. This kept the score at 2-1 Brewers and it was a great job by Crowe of not letting things come unraveled, especially after battling some tough luck.

Even by allowing his first runs of the season it was an outing that continued to show improvement by Crowe. He overcame bad luck, as well as having allowed 2 runs while having a pair of runners on base with no one out in the inning. Instead of cracking under pressure Crowe did an excellent job of quickly stopping the bleeding and keeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in the game.

Sam Howard struggles

Tuesday night Sam Howard made his season debut. He allowed a run-scoring hit to the lone batter he faced, but was bailed out by Tucupita Marcano gunning down a potential second run at the plate.

Wednesday night Howard gift wrapped an insurance run to the Brewers. In the top of the 9th inning Howard walked three straight batters. This came after he hit a batter and including walking Wong with the bases loaded. This bases loaded walk made the score 3-1 Brewers.

Last season Howard struggled mightily after a strong start to the season. If Wednesday night’s outing was any indication it appears Howard could be in for another struggling season. Once Anthony Banda is healthy, look for Howard to be optioned to Triple-A.

Bucs bring the winning run to the plate in the 9th… come up short

Facing the dominant Josh Hader, Hayes drew a walk to start the bottom of the 9th inning. This brought the tying run to the plate for the Pirates. With out Michael Chavis walked, bringing the winning run to the plate. Hader then struck out Yoshi Tsutsugo and Roberto Pérez to end the game.

The third and final game of the series is scheduled for 12:35 PM ET on Thursday afternoon. José Quintana (3.86 ERA, 4.58 FIP) is scheduled to start for the Pirates, while the Brewers are scheduled to send the struggling Freddy Peralta (7.50 ERA, 3.74 FIP) to the mound.