Pirates pound Milwaukee Brewers 8-1

Box Score

After taking two out of three against San Diego, the Milwaukee Brewers were looking to keep the positive momentum going by taking game one of their four game set against the Pirates at Miller Park. Matt Garza took the mound for the Crew facing off Gerrit Cole, who hasn’t quite been himself this season.

The game got off to a promising enough start, with Garza retiring the first six batters he faced and Milwaukee taking a 1-0 lead on a 2nd inning home run by Travis Shaw. The Count ran into trouble in the third inning, however. He walked a couple batters and didn’t have much batted ball luck, as three singles in the inning helped the Pirates plate two runs to take a 2-1 lead. Things were quiet again until the 6th inning, when David Freese lead off with a single to center field. One batter later, Andrew McCutchen came up to the plate and clubbed a 2-0 fastball over the fence in right center field to give Pittsburgh a 4-1 lead. That would be all for Garza, who went 5.1 innings while allowing 6 hits, 2 walks, and those 4 earned runs. He struck out 3 batters on the night and his ERA climbed to 4.42.

Wily Peralta came on in relief of Garza and quickly let the game get out of hand. He retired the first two batters he faced to get out of the 6th inning, but he allowed a leadoff single to Gerrit Cole in the 7th and things unraveled from there. He walked the next batter, then allowed an RBI double to Josh Harrison, a 2-run single to Gregory Polanco, a single to David Freese, finally retired a batter by striking out Josh Bell, but then served up an RBI single to McCutchen. When the dust settled, four runs came across against Big Wily to give the Pirates an 8-1 lead. He retired only three of the nine batters that he faced before getting pulled in favor of Paolo Espino.

Espino would pitch 2.2 hitless innings to close the game out and keep the Pirates to a measly 8 runs. Milwaukee’s offense couldn’t get anything going against Cole (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) or #OldFriend Jhan Marinez, who pitched two scoreless innings of relief. The game ended with an 8-1 final, dropping Milwaukee’s record to 38-34 and cutting their lead in the NL Central down to 1.5 over the Cubs, who defeated the Padres yesterday.

The Brewers and Pirates will face off again this evening, with Zach Davies set to do battle with Chad Kuhl. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM CST.