PITTSBURGH — Roansy Contreras screamed into his glove before flipping it up in the air out of frustration. The scowl on Johan Oviedo’s face as he walked slowly toward the Pirates dugout said plenty. Tucupita Marcano picked his bat up over his head and thought for a second about slamming it into the ground.
Frustration was everywhere at PNC Park on Saturday, the result of two separate rain delays, a poor start to the game for the Pirates, a comeback attempt that fell short and the snapping of a four-game winning streak by virtue of Milwaukee’s 11-8 victory.
In a way, this almost felt like the young Pirates testing their boundaries, struggling mightily through seven innings before trying to get it together late with a six-run eighth inning.
The mad dash at the end started with a Josh Palacios single that scored Jason Delay, whose one-out double ignited the rally. Two batters later, Jack Suwinski crushed a two-run homer to center, his team-high 17th of the season and the latest evidence that he has seemingly re-discovered his stroke.
Suwinski’s bomb came on a 2-0 fastball up from left-hander Clayton Andrews, who was making his MLB debut, and traveled an estimated 420 feet.
That got the Pirates to within a half-dozen runs at 11-5 before Marcano — following Connor Joe’s walk — looped one into left-center, past a diving Christian Yelich, for a two-run triple that cut the Brewers’ lead to 11-7.
Marcano’s three-bagger came off former Pirate Bryse Wilson. Ditto for Jared Triolo’s double the opposite way off the Clemente Wall that sliced Milwaukee’s advantage to 11-8.
However, out of the rain delay, that was it. The Pirates’ momentum was apparently negated by the rain.
Early on, the Brewers overwhelmed the Pirates and Oviedo, pulling ahead by a touchdown after the first two innings.
Milwaukee jumped in front 1-0 in the top of the first inning when Yelich walked and scored on a sacrifice fly. The Brewers then broke the game open with their five-run second.
The first of those runs came when center fielder Blake Perkins bounced a ball up the middle and beat out the throw as Marcano tried to turn the double play himself. Milwaukee then extended its lead to 5-0 thanks to Yelich’s three-run homer.
Oviedo threw Yelich a 1-0 slider that broke directly into the Brewers left fielder’s sweet spot. Yelich cranked it 422 feet at 108.9 mph for a no-doubter that cleared the right-field stands. Brewers first baseman Rowdy Tellez upped the advantage to 6-0 with his RBI groundout before Oviedo did settle down some.
But after three scoreless frames, the Pirates endured more problems in the sixth. Perkins and right fielder Raimel Tapia opened the inning with singles. Yelich walked to load the bases. That’s when designated hitter Jesse Winker delivered the knockout punch.
With Roansy Contreras in the game, Winker smashed a four-seam fastball that Contreras left up in the zone and drove a double into the right-center gap to help the Brewers increase their lead to 9-0. Catcher Victor Caratini contributed an RBI single later in the inning for a 10-0 Milwaukee lead.
ON THE MOUND
When Oviedo has his mechanics in sync and he’s releasing the ball out front, there’s no question he can be a dominant starter. However, this was not one of those days. It was actually the exact opposite for Oviedo, who looked out of sync from start.
Oviedo’s frustration was obvious during various points of the game, like in the early innings when he knelt down and had some sort of verbal exchange with home plate umpire Junior Valentine.
Bottom line: Oviedo was tagged for eight earned runs, six of them coming within the first two innings. If he would’ve been even a little better, the Pirates might have had a chance at a win.
It was also a rough outing for Contreras, who gave up three earned runs over 2 1/3 innings. The pitch to Winker was a mistake. In the seventh, Tapia worked an 11-pitch at-bat before going down to get a curve from Contreras for a solo home run.
AT THE PLATE
The most important performance to come out of this one was Suwinski’s, who seems to be digging out of his extended funk earlier this month. Suwinski is making more regular contact while maintaining his considerable power.
One strange number with Suwinski: The two-run shot snapped a stretch of eight consecutive solo homers for him. Saturday also marked just the sixth time in 26 games where the Pirates lost when Suwinski recorded an RBI.
The toughest part for the Pirates in this one was facing Brewers starter Corbin Burnes, who was perfect through five and looked for a while like he might really flirt with something special.
Pittsburgh hitters struck out seven times against Burnes, who threw a bunch of terrific cutters and also mixed in change-ups, curveballs and sliders, as well.
With the Pirates down 10-0, Triolo and Ji Hwan Bae drew walks to open the sixth. Burnes hit Andrew McCutchen, and Suwinski connected on a full-count, elevated cutter, resulting in a softly lined single to right field that scored two.
UP NEXT
It’ll be Rich Hill in the series finale for Pittsburgh. The lefty has a 3.96 ERA in 12 career games (11 starts) against the Brewers.
