Bullpen can't hold up forever, Pirates lose to Brewers in 13 innings

Long game on a work night, so you get the short recap.

Eight innings of work finally did the Tony Watson- and Mark Melancon-less Pirates' bullpen in, and a wild pitch strikeout turned into the winning run as the Bucs lost to the Brewers, 6-4, in 13 innings. It was an annoying loss. They're all annoying.

Radhames Liz gave up runs in both innings he worked. He walked the mighty Logan Schafer and Elian Herrera before Ryan Braun singled to break a 3-3 tie in the 12th. Gregory Polanco homered to lead off the bottom of the inning and it looked like the Pirates would win after Josh Harrison hit a solid single to left to bring up Andrew McCutchen. But McCutchen struck out and Harrison, running on the pitch, stopped between first and second and was tagged out after a rundown. Jung-Ho Kang grounded out to end the inning.

Nevin Ashley, husband of Ashley Ashley, led off the 13th and struck out, but reached first on a wild pitch. Three singles plated Nevin Ashley and, for good measure, Jean Segura, and Kyle Lohse closed the door in the bottom of the inning.

-- A.J. Burnett got hit hard in the first inning, but had a good outing in his return from the disabled list. A solid Scooter Gennett double and a Khris Davis two-run homer that easily cleared the center field wall put the Pirates in an early 3-0 hole, but Burnett held the Brewers hitless in his four innings after that.

-- Joe Blanton kept things under control with two clean innings. Antonio Bastardo, Joakim Soria and Arquimedes Caminero tossed a scoreless inning each, and Bobby LaFromboise and Jared Hughes split the 11th. It was a really nice night, for the most part, for the bullpen, especially with Watson and Melancon unavailable.

-- The Pirates slowly chipped away at the Brewers' lead. Neil Walker got a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the fifth. The Bucs got only one run out of a two-on, no-out and bases-loaded, one-out situation in the seventh on Travis Snider's bases-loaded walk. Andrew McCutchen tied it  in the eighth with a solo homer to right. I'm not sure if the ball just kind of carried or if Braun dummied me into thinking it was falling at the warning track.

-- The ball got away from Martin Maldonado on Polanco's strikeout in the seventh. He would have reached first and the tying run would have scored then had Polanco run right away. Honestly, not a lot of guys do go right away. But Nevin Ashley made it, so, I don't know.

-- Starling Marte got hit by a pitch in the left shoulder in the eighth and was taken out of the game because of that. So that's cool.

-- This wasn't that short of a recap after all.