Pirates Refuse to Accept Victory, Drop 6-5 Decision to Brew Crew in 11 Innings

Steven Brault held the Crew to a ground ball single in the first. Kevin Newman's walk off Adrian Houser was all the Bucco action, and he was caught stealing on a coin flip call. The Brewers opened the second with back-to-back walks, but Justin Smoak, hunting a 3-1 fastball, got a change instead and bounced into a 5-3 DP. A fly ended the inning without any damage, but did start a thunder, lightning and rain delay. After an hour and 42 minutes of heel-cooling, the game resumed. Houser stayed on and was greeted by a Colin Moran dinger ripped into the right field seats. Bryan Reynolds walked but was inexplicably doubled off when he took off on a pop, and the Pirates settled for one run. Chad Kuhl toed the slab in the third and flipped a clean frame, as did Houser. With two away in the fourth, the Crew got back-to-back knocks to put runners on the corners, but a swingin' K ended the rally. The Pirates went down without a peep. 

Chad looked sharp in his first outing since 2018 - image Pittsburgh Pirates

Milwaukee's leadoff knock in the fifth was erased on a 4-3 DP and a two-out free pass was left aboard. Gregory walked for all the Bucco noise. The Brew Crew drew an opening walk in the sixth, then Kuhl punched out a pair. Chris Stratton then got the call; Chad was at 55 pitches and Shelty thought that was enough. Strats tossed five pitches before Jake picked him up with a CS. Devin Williams took the ball and the Pirates remained meek as mice. Nik Turley took the hill in the seventh and gave up a leadoff double; his bacon was saved on a nice play of a rocket to third by Captain Redbeard. A two-out walk put him in a jam with Crew on the corners, and Lorenzo Cain's rap tied the score. Kevin Newman booted a ball, and the sacks were juiced for Christian Yelich, who hit the ball well but within Jarrod Dyson's zip code to end the frame. 

After an out, Redbeard  was at it again, driving another dinger out of the yard and into the Allegheny on the hop. B-Rey walked and Joey O hit a crawler that Williams threw away. That put Bucs at second and third for El Coffee and brought on lefty Alex Claudio. Shelty let Gregory face the same side music and he K'ed swinging without seeing a ball in the strike zone. Jake walked to fill the bases and lefty Dyson hit. He whacked a 3-2 heater into right to plate a pair; it was his first Pirates hit. A wild pitch scored another to make it 5-1. And ho boy, Richard Rodriguez got the eighth inning call. And holy moly, a 1-2-3 inning resulted. Eric Yardley was next up for Milwaukee. He gave up a one-out rap to J-Bell, but Colin proved human by banging into a 3-6 DP. 

Ric Rod had a bounce back outing - image Pittsburgh Pirates

Michael Feliz climbed the mound for the ninth, Shelty got cute and used a four-man OF vs Smoak, who didn't take the bait and rolled a single into right. The Brewers took a one-out walk and a single loaded 'em up. Then he bopped a batter. A ground out made it 5-3 (iffy DP ball; J-Bell opted to take the sure out) and left runners at second and third with two outs. Kyle Crick got the wave into the game to face Ryan Braun, who of course doubled them both home on a two-strike pitch to knot the score. Craig Counsell called in Josh Hader. Guillermo Heredia walked with an out. Gregory went lefty-on-lefty again and went down swinging again and Jake flew out; it's bonus baseball time. Dovy Neverauskas came in, with the new free runner at second, who reached third with an out after a wild pitch. But Dovy fanned the next pair, and Cole Tucker jogged to second for the Buccos. David Phelps tossed and fanned Dyson, who botched two bunt attempts. Two more grounders sent it to the 11th, with Dovy still on the hill.

Eric Sogard doubled home the ghost runner. A one-out infield single put runners on the corners, but a K and bouncer left them there. J-Bell's tapper moved the free runner to third against Phelps, but Erik Gonzalez and Reynolds fanned as the Bucs snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Shelty hopefully had an awakening today; several of his decisions were head scratchers, and you have to learn to put away the games you should, especially in a truncated campaign. A deeper bench would help, but you have to play the hand you're dealt.

Notes:

• This was the first time this year that the Pirates scored first, not that it helped. 
• Colin Moran has homered in all three Home Openers since he's joined Pittsburgh. He had two of the four Pirates hits. s/o Adam Berry 
• Bryan Reynolds is still looking for his first hit of the year while Fraze and Kevin Newman have three between them.
• In four innings of work for Tampa, Tyler Glasnow gave up a solo homer and struck out nine Braves while hitting 100 on the radar.