Orlando Arcia catches everyone off guard with a timely bunt

An abbreviated and quite unscientific poll of the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse following their 7-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night at Miller Park revealed one unmistakable fact:

Orlando Arcia's sixth-inning, two-RBI bunt double was something no one's ever seen before.

Executed on the fly without any call from manager Craig Counsell, the shortstop helped break open what had been a back-and-forth affair with a Pirates team that's given the Brewers all they can handle to this point in the season.

"That was awesome," said third baseman Mike Moustakas. "I've never seen it before. Huge play, really smart play right there in the game."

Arcia didn't even start the game but collected hits in all three of his at-bats after entering the game in a double-switch in the fifth inning.

He started off with another unusual play, lining a rocket off the butt of Pittsburgh starter Chris Archer for a single in a 3-3 game. He moved to second on a Lorenzo Cain walk, then two flyouts later Arcia scored to give the Brewers a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

The fun stuff came an inning later.

After Moustakas singled and Domingo Santana doubled off Archer's replacement, Steven Brault, Arcia wasted no time with a solid baseball play.

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Seeing first baseman Josh Bell stationed well to the left of first base, Arcia squared around on Brault's first offering and half-lined a 94-mph fastball that was up and out of the strike zone down the first-base line.

The ball hopped over the bag and rolled into right field, allowing Moustakas and Santana to both score and extend Milwaukee's lead to 6-3.

"I saw him off and I just knew that run was important and we needed to find a way to get it in," Arcia said through translator Carlos Brizuela. "I was just trying to hit it on the ground that way. I wasn’t really trying to get it over the bag, but I’m glad I did.

"It worked out pretty well and we got both runs."

Brewers starter Gio Gonzalez, who went just 4 2/3 innings in an otherwise lackluster outing, tipped his cap twice on the evening -- once in the second inning to Lorenzo Cain after the centerfielder saved him at least one run and possibly two with a leaping catch at the wall in right-center.

The other came afterward in recognition of Arcia's heads-up move with the bat in the sixth.

"That was very impressive. I think it was intelligent, too," Gonzalez said. "He literally caught everybody by surprise. I think it even caught him by surprise, that it stayed fair. I guess when it’s going for you, it’s going for you.

"It’s awesome. I’ve never seen a push-bunt double for two RBI. There’s a first time for everything."

Arcia capped his night by singling in the eighth, upping his average to .223 from .215. And that he helped break the game open against the Pirates was probably fitting, considering it was his walk-off single in the 15th inning that beat them exactly three weeks earlier.

"The way we play our games, we’ve always got to be ready," he said. "Whether you’re starting or not you’ve just got to be ready to play because you never know when there’s going to be a double switch and you’re going to go in the game. You’ve got to prepare no matter what.

"But having those three hits today is definitely going to help and I’ve just got to keep it going the rest of the way."

It was an all-hands-on-deck sort of night for the Brewers, who got contributions up and down the lineup.

There was Cain, who was on base a couple times and also making the catch to rob Mercer. Christian Yelich and Travis Shaw each hit their 29th homers in the first to stake the Brewers and Gonzalez to a 3-0 lead.

Jesús Aguilar drove in Arcia with the go-ahead run in the fifth with a sacrifice fly, then Moustakas capped the scoring in the seventh.

Counsell also used his bullpen liberally behind Gonzalez -- something he's likely to continue to do the rest of the way with 14 arms in it -- with Corbin Burnes, Corey Knebel, Joakim Soria, Xavier Cedeño and Jeremy Jeffress combining for 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball.

"That’s big for any team, any time you have everyone contributing," Arcia said. "It’s huge, and we’ve got to keep it going and keep working and keep trying to find different ways to win games."

A few other notables:

-- Yelich scored his 100th run, making him the first Brewer since Ryan Braun in 2012 (108) to reach that mark.

-- Yelich and Shaw have homered in the same game seven times this season. Only the Dodgers have had duos do it more, with Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy going deep nine times, Bellinger and Joc Pederson nine times and Munch and Pederson eight times.

-- Aguilar is now two RBI away from 100. He now has 62 two-strike RBIs, tied with Ken Griffey Jr. (1997) for fourth-most since the stat first began being recorded in 1988.

-- Cain tied his career high with his 28th stolen base.

-- Burnes joined Dan Plesac as the only Brewers to record five wins in relief in their first 23 career appearances.