:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47083802/usa-today-8777233.0.jpg)
The Brewers scored five runs against Jeff Locke and scored four runs against the Pirates bullpen en route to a 9-4 victory Wednesday night.
Three of the first four batters reached base against Locke. Jean Segura led off with a double, then came home as Jonathan Lucroy singled to center. Two batters later, Lucroy came home on Khris Davis' double to the gap. Locke also gave up a run in the third, as Ryan Braun and Davis each hit soft two-out singles and came home on another single, this time by Adam Lind.
Meanwhile, the Pirates offense struggled against Zach Davies, who was making his big-league debut. That was frustrating, given that Davies (who the Brewers acquired last month when they traded Gerardo Parra to Baltimore) is a slight righty who looks like he's about 15 and relies on high-80s fastballs and an endless stream of changeups.
The Bucs' second time through the order against Davies went better than the first, however. Starling Marte doubled and Andrew McCutchen walked to kick off the fourth inning, and Aramis Ramirez tied the game with a three-run homer off Davies' 89-MPH fastball.
The Brewers quickly recaptured the lead, however. In the bottom of the fourth, Davies singled with two outs, and Segura followed with another double. The Miller Park faithful weren't happy that the Brewers held Davies at third, but he and Segura both came home as Lucroy singled up the middle.
The Pirates cut the lead to one on Ramirez's RBI double in the fifth, but the Brewers tacked on another run on Lind's solo homer off Joe Blanton in the bottom of the inning, and they kept piling on from there. In the seventh, Arquimedes Caminero gave up a two-run single to Scooter Gennett. In the eighth, Rob Scahill made his first appearance since June and allowed a leadoff walk to Jason Rogers, followed by singles to Segura and Braun.
The loss was the Pirates' third straight. The evening's silver lining was that the Nationals beat the Cardinals, so the Pirates didn't lose any additional ground in the NL Central. The Cubs lost also, falling to the Reds.