Brewers offense builds a big-enough lead, holds on to defeat Pirates 11-8

Box Score

It was looking like we might get a repeat of last night in the eighth inning when the Brewers bullpen had a hard time putting the Pirates away. Thankfully, the Brewers offense built up enough of a buffer this time and the Brewers came away from this one with an 11-8 win.

Early on, the Brewers were cruising in this game. Corbin Burnes was staked to a 1-0 lead before he threw a pitch thanks to a Rowdy Tellez sacrifice fly in the first. Two singles started the second inning for the Brewers, and then Blake Perkins grounded into a fielder’s choice that allowed Brian Anderson to score from third. After a Raimel Tapia walk, Christian Yelich hit a three-run shot into the river to put the Brewers up 5-0. After a walk and a double, Rowdy Tellez brought in Jesse Winker with an RBI groundout and the Brewers had a 6-0 lead.

That looked like it would be more than enough for Corbin Burnes. Through five innings, he was a perfect 15-for-15 on retiring batters. The Brewers offense even gave him four more runs with a Jesse Winker RBI double that cleared the bases and an RBI single from Victor Caratini. That gave the Brewers a 10-0 lead.

Burnes’ perfect day came to an end in the sixth. He walked two and hit a batter with a pitch, then Jack Suwinski broke up the no-hitter with an RBI single that scored two. Burnes got out of the inning and went for one more inning, finishing the day with seven innings pitched and two runs allowed. He also allowed one hit, two walks, and had seven strikeouts.

Raimel Tapia added on another run with a solo home run in the seventh, and the Brewers had an 11-2 lead as Clayton Andrews entered the game for his MLB debut. Andrews started with a groundout, then allowed a double to Jason Delay and a single to Josh Palacios to bring in a run. Andrew McCutchen grounded out for the second out, but Suwinski homered and the lead was down to 11-5.

After allowing a walk to Connor Joe and single to Henry Davis, Bryse Wilson came in to finish the inning. Unfortunately, he allowed a triple to Tucupita Marcano and double to Jared Triolo that closed the gap to 11-8. Wilson ended the inning with a strikeout, but the nine-run lead was down to a three-run lead.

Craig Counsell went to Joel Payamps in the ninth inning. Thankfully, this went better than last night, as Payamps got two groundouts and a strikeout to end the game.

Overall, the Brewers offense had 12 hits in the game, and every starter except for Tellez had at least one hit. Tellez still had a solid contribution with two run-producing outs. Christian Yelich and Jesse Winker each had three RBI and Raimel Tapia reached base three times with a 2-for-3 day that included a walk.

The game also featured two rain delays. The start of the game was delayed due to rain (that never fell), and that delayed the start 40 minutes. There was also a delay before the ninth inning that actually did have rain, but didn’t delay the game too long.

The Brewers finish their road trip tomorrow, going for the series win in the rubber match on Sunday. Colin Rea will face Rich Hill in the third game of the series. First pitch is at 12:35 p.m.