Brewers sink Pirates, 7-3

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers won the series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night, then the front office completed a significant transaction on Wednesday, trading for infielder Eduardo Escobar. The club rode that positive momentum into the game on Wednesday night and once again handed the Pirates an ‘L’ thanks to a strong overall pitching performance.

The Brewers set the tone early, once again getting on the board first in the top of the opening inning. Kolten Wong and Willy Adames led off with back-to-back singles, then Omar Narvaez lined into a double play at first base. The next batter, Avisail Garcia, was able to cash in, however, singling to center to score Wong and make it 1-0.

Milwaukee’s bats got back at it in the fourth. Narvaez doubled to start the frame, then moved up to third on a single by Garcia. After a pair of outs, Lorenzo Cain doubled to score both runners and push the lead to 3-0.

In the sixth, the Brewers put up a crooked number. Rowdy Tellez and Tyrone Taylor singled to lead off the inning. Lorenzo Cain was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no one out. Luis Urias doubled, scoring Taylor and Tellez to make it 5-0. After a Jackie Bradley, Jr. punchout, Kolten Wong lofted a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Cain from third and making it a 6-0 game. The Brewers tacked on one more run in the seventh. Garcia singled with one out, then Tellez walked. That brought up Taylor, who singled on the ground to right field, scorong Garcia to make it a 7-0 ballgame.

That would be all the runs Milwaukee needed and more, as three pitchers held the Pirates largely in check throughout this game. Adrian Houser got the start and worked five scoreless innings on 70 pitches, yielding just two hits and a walk with a pair of punchouts. Next was Eric Lauer, working extended innings in sort of a tandem role. He gave up a solo homer to Rodolfo Castro in the seventh, but otherwise threw 3.0 innings with two hits, two walks, and four strikeouts. Josh Hader, working for the first time in over a week, knocked some rust off in his appearance cleaning up the ninth inning. He allowed a leadoff single to John Nogowski then served up Castro’s second home run of the game, making it a 7-3 contest. But that’s where things would end up after he successfully navigated through the end of the inning.

The Brewers will face the Pirates one more time in this series, on Thursday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 PM central. Freddy Peralta is slated to take on Chad Kuhl.