Pirates Bats Lifeless in Loss to Brewers

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates had an awful showing from the plate and suffered a 4-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park.

The Pirates make it back-to-back defeats, as they also lost the series opener to the Brewers, 5-2 on Sept. 6, after seven straight wins at home dating back to the last home stand.

This marks seven straight defeats for the Pirates against the Brewers this season, losing the past five games before this at American Family Field, and drop to 3-8 on the season against their divisional foe.

Pittsburgh drops to 64-79 overall and 42-32 at home, while Milwaukee improves to 88-55 overall, the best record in the MLB, and 42-29 on the road.

Pirates right-handed starting pitcher Mitch Keller gave up a leadoff double to Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick in the top of the first inning.

Keller held the Brewers scoreless, getting left fielder Jackson Chourio to fly out, second baseman Brice Turang to ground out then catcher William Contreras to fly out.

Designated hitter Bryan Reynolds hit a single with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, but the Pirates struggled massively against Brewers right-handed starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff.

Woodruff baffled Pirates batters throughout, retiring 15 consecutive batters after Reynolds, before giving up a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth inning to shortstop Jared Triolo. He finished with just two hits allowed over six scoreless innings, eight strikeouts over

Keller did well through most of his outing, throwing two more scoreless innings and then getting the first two outs of the fourth inning.

He would give up a single to Contreras and then a two-run home run to designated hitter Jake Bauers, who hit a 94.2 mph fastball and sent it 382 feet into the right field bleachers, putting the Brewers up 2-0.

Keller gave up a double to Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn in the next at-bat, but then got third baseman Caleb Durbin to ground out and kept it a two-run game.

He retired the next seven batters, before hitting Vaughn with a pitch with one out in the top of the seventh inning.

Keller ended his outing after that at-bat, finishing with five hits and two earned runs allowed over 6.1 innings pitched, with four strikeouts. He earned his 17th quality start with this performance, putting him at 11th most in the MLB this season.