Bucs fall in 15, 7-6

After falling to a four run deficit by the end of the 1^st inning, Pittsburgh chipped away at Milwaukee’s lead and eventually tied the game in the 9^th inning, sending it into extras. The Pirates and Brewers traded five scoreless innings of free baseball before a loud 15^th inning where Pittsburgh would take a two run lead and then allow it to evaporate after Milwaukee scored three in the bottom of the frame to end the game.

Pittsburgh banged out 17 base hits during Friday night’s contest, including the first two of Kevin Newman’s big league career. The pitching was solid also aside from meltdowns in the first and last innings. Musgrove settled down after the rocky 1^st inning to throw three scoreless innings. Rodriguez, Santana, Kela, Vazquez, and Brault blanked the Brewers over the next 10 innings while striking out 11 batters before Holmes entered the game and walked everyone.

Here’s how the scoring went:

Milwaukee literally wasted no time while initiating offensive production when Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich led the game off with a ground-rule double and a home run on the first two pitches, granting the Brewers an early 2-0 lead. However, the scoring would continue. Jesus Aguilar roped a single to left to follow up and reached second base on a missed tag after Travis Shaw’s groundout and failed double play attempt. The missed tag proved to be costly as Mike Moustakas stepped to the plate with two outs and hit a two run bomb to extend the lead to four runs.

Pittsburgh began chipping away at the lead in the top of the 2^nd inning when Marte reached base on a HPB and Newman doubled him to third for his first Major League base hit. Frazier would stay hot with two outs while delivering single, scoring Marte and Newman for Pittsburgh’s first two runs of the game.

After failing to score while loading the bases with two outs in the 5^th inning, the Pirates would push another run across in the 6^th when Frazier led the inning off with a double, reached third and eventually scored on sacrifice fly’s by Diaz and Polanco.

The Pirates pushed the final run of their comeback effort across in the 9^th inning after Marte grounded a two out single up the middle, scoring Polanco from second and tying the game at four.

Pittsburgh loaded the bases with nothing to show for it again 10^th inning when Newman singled, Frazier and Polanco walked before Freese grounded into a fielder’s choice for the final out of the inning.

The Pirates scored the go-ahead runs in the top of the 15^th inning after Diaz doubled to left, Gregory Polanco walked intentionally, and Cervelli delivered a two out bloop single to right that scored both runners, putting the Pirates up 6-4.

Unfortunately, that lead was short lived. Clay Holmes entered the bottom of the 15^th inning to close out the game but walked the bases loaded (including the pitcher, Jordan Lyles) while recording the first two outs of the frame. Erik Kratz stepped in next and delivered a bouncing groundball up the middle, just out of Newman’s reach, to tie the game at six. Orlando Arcia won the game in the next at bat on a ground ball of his own, scoring Jordan Lyles from second base.

Final Score: Brewers 7, Pirates 6

W: Lyles (3-4) L: Holmes (1-3)

Pittsburgh will do it again on Saturday night when Jameson Taillon faces off against Jhoulys Chacin.