Pirates' offense quiet, Francisco Cervelli hurt in 3-1 loss

SATURDAY: Cervelli's foot is not fractured and he "should be okay," Rob Biertempfel tweets.

FRIDAY: The Bucs fell to the Brewers 3-1 in Milwaukee Friday, adding injury to insult as they lost Francisco Cervelli in the process.

Steven Brault allowed three runs over six innings, including a two-run shot to Chris Carter in the first that went way over the wall in left-center. Brault also allowed a run on consecutive doubles by Scooter Gennett and former Pirate Keon Broxton in the sixth.

Meanwhile, the Pirates' offense was mostly useless against Junior Guerra, who cruised efficiently through eight scoreless innings before finally running into a bit of trouble in the ninth, when the Bucs finally scored on a leadoff single by Matt Joyce, a walk by John Jaso and an RBI grounder by Andrew McCutchen. Guerra got through 8.2 innings, striking out five and walking just the one.

In the eighth, Juan Nicasio threw a pitch that missed its target badly, grazed Gennett, and hit Cervelli on the arch of his foot. Cervelli remained on the ground for quite awhile after that, in obvious pain. He was replaced by Eric Fryer, who presumably will join Elias Diaz in taking over catching duties for however long Cervelli needs to be out. Cervelli, of course, only returned to the Pirates' lineup 10 days ago after missing over a month due to a hand injury.

The Pirates are now 52-49 and are three games back in the Wild Card race.