Pirates 3, Brewers 2: Offense comes up short yet again
The Milwaukee Brewers once again fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon.
But this time they made things interesting before all was said and done.
Having posted 16 scoreless innings against Pittsburgh pitching coming into the ninth inning, Jesús Aguilar and Domingo Santana homered on consecutive pitches against all-star closer Felipe Vázquez.
Their shots pulled Milwaukee within a run and finally got the crowd into the game. But the drama ended there, with Vázquez quickly regaining his footing and retiring the next three batters to send the Brewers to a 3-2 loss at Miller Park.
"It's a good message for us the rest of the season -- every day's a tough day," said manager Craig Counsell, whose team has now lost consecutive games for the first time since dropping three straight from Aug. 15-18.
"We're treating it like that. The other side is trying to get after it as well. They're not going to give you anything, there's no question about that."
Milwaukee saw its streak of seven consecutive series victories come to an end with the setback, but the good news for them was they didn't lose any ground in the Central Division with the Chicago Cubs falling to the Cincinnati Reds.
The Brewers remain 2 1/2 games back – three in the loss column – while their lead in the wild-card standings shrunk to three games with the second-place Colorado Rockies playing later Sunday afternoon.
BOX SCORE:Pirates 3, Brewers 2
ANALYSIS:If Brewers don't catch Cubs, at least they'll know why
NOTES:Kratz caught on quickly for the Brewers
RELATED:Brewers' magic number dips to 10
MLB:Live scoreboard, box scores, standings, statistics
The offense had spun its wheels all day against Pirates starter Trevor Williams and relievers Richard Rodriguez and Kyle Crick before inexplicably coming to life against the normally unhittable Vázquez.
Aguilar started the Brewers' ninth by hammering his 32nd homer of the season to left, leaving him with 99 runs batted in for the season.
Then it was Santana's turn. He came off the bench to drill one out to right on the very next pitch, giving him his first homer in a Brewers uniform since May 21.
Vázquez, meanwhile, had allowed only two homers all season in a total of 63 innings coming in.
"Just go out there and swing, to be honest with you," Santana said of his approach. "Until you get the last out, I was confident we could come back and get a rally or something so we could get back in the game.
But the fireballing Vázquez recovered by getting Ryan Braun swinging on an off-speed pitch. Then he got Mike Moustakas to pop out and Erik Kratz to ground out to end it.
Making the loss sting that much more was the fact the Pirates tacked on a run in the top of the ninth against Corbin Burnes, with the light-hitting Kevin Newman -- already with one RBI on the day -- singling in another.
"Agui and Domingo get us started off in a great way and Brauny has a really good at bat and fouls off a bunch of pitches and makes him work, but he settled down," Counsell said of Vázquez.
"You want everything back, but the pitch to Newman, (Burnes) probably wants that back."
Williams came into the game sporting a microscopic 1.32 earned run average since the all-star break, which was tops in the major leagues for pitchers with at least 50 innings of work.
He'd also beaten Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacín on June 18 in Pittsburgh, throwing seven shutout innings in a 1-0 Pirates victory.
Pittsburgh grabbed the lead for him in the second when Corey Dickerson lined a double to right field that ticked off the top of Christian Yelich's glove, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kevin Newman.
A leadoff walk came back to bite Chacín in the third when Josh Bell drew a free pass to start, moved to second on a groundout and scored on a single by Dickerson.
Staked to the 2-0 lead, Williams breezed.
He allowed just two hits -- doubles by Orlando Arcia in the third and Kratz in the fifth -- and three walks, but never was in any danger.
The closest the Brewers came to threatening was in the third after Arcia's double and a walk by Lorenzo Cain left two on for Yelich, who ultimately grounded out to second.
"From what I saw, he threw a lot of strikes, was controlling the corners," Aguilar said. "He had good command on both sides of the plate and kept the ball low in the strike zone. He did a pretty good job."
Chacín (14-8), meanwhile, allowed three hits, two runs (earned) and three walks with four strikeouts over five innings (79 pitches).
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
PONDERING PITTSBURGH’S PITCHING: Among teams not in contention for the postseason, the Pirates have posed problems for the Brewers because of their pitching. In their 10 losses to Pittsburgh, the Brewers scored a total of 21 runs, better than you’d expect from the 10th ranked staff (4.05) in the NL. “They have pitched well; it’s been the strength of their team for a while,” Counsell said. “It’s a good pitching staff. They have solid starting pitching and good back-end relief pitching.”
SPEAKING OF WHICH: Only two Brewers entered Sunday with more than one career hit against Williams – Arcia, who was 3 for 8 (.375) with a walk and Santana, who was 3 for 6 (.500) with a homer. Arcia was in the starting lineup while Santana has yet to start a game since being recalled from Class AAA Colorado Springs on Sept. 1.
MARK IT DOWN: Chacín tied a career high by making his National League-leading 32nd start, a total he first reached last season with the San Diego Padres. He'll set a new career high next weekend in Pittsburgh, and should finish with a new career high of 34 starts by the end of the regular season. It's the fourth time Chacín has started 30 or more games in his career, and while he'll surpass the 180 1/3 innings he threw in 2017 it's unlikely he'll challenge his high-water mark of 197 1/3 innings he threw in 2013 with the Colorado Rockies.
ALL GOOD THINGS: Yelich had his streak of consecutive games in which he reached base snapped at 30 after he flew out to left twice and grounded out twice. It had been the longest such active streak in the NL. Houston's Alex Bregman has the longest active streak in the majors at 42 games.
TOUGH FINISH: Class AA Biloxi took a 1-0 lead over Jackson in the Southern League Championship Series last Tuesday and led, 3-1, heading into the second inning of Game 2 before falling apart. The Shuckers lost Game 2, then Games 3 and 4 in Biloxi to finish as runners-up. A 3-2 defeat on Saturday night sealed it, with Jackson scoring once in the ninth against all-star closer Nate Griep and former Brewers reliever Michael Blazek closing the game out in the bottom half.
RECORD
This year: 85-65
Last year: 80-70
ATTENDANCE
Sunday: 32,180
This year: 2,622,783 (34,970 avg.)
Last year: 2,337,073 (31,161 avg.)
COMING UP
Monday: Reds at Brewers, 7:10 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Wade Miley (4-2, 2.23) vs. Cincinnati RHP Anthony DeSclafani (7-5, 4.80). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.