Fielding Mistakes Costly in Pirates’ 6-1 Loss to Brewers

Defensive lapses cost the Pittsburgh Pirates as they fell 6-1 to the Brewers at on Wednesday at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

Manny Bañuelos came into the game in relief of starter Zach Thompson in the fifth inning. With the Bucs up 1-0 and two on, Willy Adames lined a game-tying double to gap in right-center after a 10-pitch at-bat. The run was unearned due to a Ke’Bryan Hayes error at third base earlier in the frame.

Bañuelos prevented further damage to keep the game tied, and Miguel Yajure came on to the start the sixth inning after being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier in the day.

The inning began with a throwing error by shortstop Oneil Cruz that allowed Keston Hiura to reach second base. Hirua later scored on an Omar Narváez ground out.

With two on in the seventh inning, Hiura hit a sharp grounder to short. The ball ricocheted off of Cruz and landed in center field, allowing Hunter Renfroe to score. The play was ruled a base hit, but it was a play Cruz probably should have made.

Luis Urías followed with an RBI single to center. Yohan Ramirez came into the game in relief. With the bases loaded, Ramirez issued back-to-back walks to Garrett Mitchell and Christian Yelich to put Milwaukee up 6-1.

The trio of Bañuelos, Yajure and Ramirez combined to walk eight batters, two intentionally.

The game was scoreless through three innings.

With two outs in the top of the fourth, the Pirates’ Ben Gamel got the 3-0 green light and lined a home run to right field for the game’s first run. For Gamel, it was his seventh longball of the year and his second against Milwaukee this season.

Kevin Newman doubled in the eighth as part of a two-hit game.

Thompson shut out the Brewers across four innings. He scattered three hits, walked one and struck out five.

Robert Stephenson made his team debut in a scoreless eighth inning. He was claimed off waivers from the Colorado Rockies over the weekend.

The Pirates have an off day Thursday before hosting the Toronto Blue Jays at PNC Park in a three-game beginning Friday night. That starts a nine-game homestand.

Takeaways

• Different Role, Similar Results: Thompson’s last outing was in relief last Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies. In that appearance, Thompson was only charged with one earned run in five innings. After tossing four scoreless on Wednesday combined with his final two innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 21, the big right-hander has only allowed one earned run in his last 11 innings of work (0.82 ERA).
• Brew Crew Killer: With an infield single in the first inning, Bryan Reynolds picked up at least one hit in all three games against the Brewers in the series. In total, Reynolds went 5 for 12 (.417) and was walked once intentionally. For his career, Reynolds is 72 for 222 (.324) against Milwaukee. His 72 hits are 23 more than his second-highest total against any one team (49 against the Chicago Cubs).
• The Bad With The Good: Though Cruz and Hayes both committed errors, each made eye-opening plays in the field. In the first, Cruz went a long way into shallow center to track down a popup off the bat of Adames. Hayes saved at least one run with a terrific diving play at third to end the sixth.