PITTSBURGH — Mitch Keller endured a less-than-ideal start Tuesday but was able to steady himself and last. The Pirates bullpen, so solid this season, could not do the same, as Brewers shortstop Willy Adames enjoyed an incredible night.
The sum total was a 12-8 Pirates loss to Milwaukee to open a three-game series at PNC Park, one that was oddly defined by Pittsburgh’s inability to get outs in the middle innings, a strength of the team for much of this season.
After the Pirates battled back to create a 4-4 tie after five innings, the Brewers scored six against Aaron Fletcher and Heath Hembree, with Adames’ three-run homer — his second long ball of the game — extending Milwaukee’s lead to 10-4.
Despite some chipping away late, it was a gap the Pirates (8-9) could not close, in large part because of Adames’ monster game. Hitting just .194 before Tuesday, Adames exploded to go 4 for 5 with a double, two home runs, seven RBIs and also scored a pair of runs.
Fletcher starting the decisive sixth inning was a curious decision by manager Derek Shelton. Claimed off waivers at the start of spring training having totaled just eight MLB innings, Fletcher has been mostly counted upon to do what he did Saturday during a 21-0 loss at Chicago: eat innings in lower-leverage roles.
Deploying Fletcher while trailing 4-1 is expected. Leaving him there once the score was tied in the sixth was not.
Nevertheless, Fletcher gave up a single to first baseman Rowdy Tellez before right fielder Tyrone Taylor went the other way with a 1-2 change-up, tripling into the right-center gap. Catcher Omar Narvaez extended the Brewers’ lead to 6-4 when he went down and got a Fletcher slider and drove it through a drawn-in infield, ending the left-hander’s night.
Second baseman Kolten Wong greeted Hembree by lining an elevated four-seamer into right to make it 7-4. Adames capped it off by also attacking Hembree early, this time belting a hanging slider into the left-field seats.
In addition to a bunch of runs, Tuesday’s game also featured plenty of firsts. Called up from Class AA Altoona earlier in the day when Bryan Reynolds and Cole Tucker went on the COVID-IL, Jack Suwinski started in right field and notched his first MLB hit.
Promoted Sunday with the Pirates in need of pitching depth, Beau Sulser also appeared in a big league game for the first time — and looked really good. Sulser worked 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth, striking out four. He finished with 2 2/3 innings pitched, with two runs allowed (none earned) and four strikeouts.
If that wasn’t enough, Ke’Bryan Hayes played shortstop for the first time in his career in the eighth inning before Tucupita Marcano — promoted along with Suwinski — picked up his first hit as a Pirate, a double in the eighth inning. Marcano, acquired in the Adam Frazier trade, made his MLB debut last year with the Padres.
The Pirates scored once in the seventh, and Marcano’s double coupled with a sacrifice fly from Hayes (3 hits) brought the Pirates back to within 10-7; however, they could not get any closer.
Early on, it looked like this one might be about another Mitch Keller start spiraling out of control as the second batter of the game, Adames, took him deep on a fastball up in the zone, giving Milwaukee an early 2-0 lead.
Amazingly, though, after Keller slogged his way through a 31-pitch first inning, he needed just 29 to get through the next three. The second ended with a double play. Three up, three down in the third. Roberto Perez threw out Andrew McCutchen to help in the fourth.
A key sequence for Keller came with two outs in the fifth, when second baseman Kolten Wong snapped a 0-for-16 stretch with a terrific bunt, and Adames whacked a very hittable slider — 2-1 count, middle-middle location — from Keller down the left-field line for a two-run double and a 4-1 lead.
To that point, the Pirates’ only run came on a Perez double in the second, when he bounced a double past Jace Peterson at third base.
The Pirates did battle back with three runs in the fifth, tying the game at 4. Ben Gamel scored one when he drilled a Brandon Woodruff curveball the opposite way to left. Kevin Newman brought in two more by smashing a fastball from reliever Brent Suter right back up the middle.
However, none of it mattered when the Brewers offense erupted against Fletcher and Hembree in the sixth.
