The Pittsburgh Pirates seven game losing streak came to an end against the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday evening.
In unexpected fashion a pitching duel broke out through the first five innings. In the end neither starting pitcher got past the first out in the sixth.
Bryse Wilson didn’t miss many bats but he did throw 68% of his pitches for strikes and induced eight groundouts to four flyouts. He was cruising for the most part until the Brewers teed off for three solo HR’s in the sixth, of which all three came off his curveball. Wilson threw his curveball for 28% of his pitches, which would be the highest percentage he’s thrown the pitch in a start all season (per Baseball Savant).
Colin Holderman made his Pirates debut by relieving Wilson in the sixth and held the Brewers scoreless on way to earning the win in his first appearance. He wasn’t very efficient throwing 10 of his 23 pitches for strikes while allowing two hits and a walk in one inning of work that covered the final two outs of the sixth and first out of the seventh.
Following the Brewers breaking through for three runs in the sixth, the Pirates decided to top that with five runs of their own. After getting Ben Gamel to groundout, Brewers starter Corbin Burnes then walked the next two batters before Oneil Cruz took a pitch about six inches off the outside of the plate to dead center for a three-run HR.
Oneil Cruz might be good. And very strong.
From there the Pirates bullpen shutdown the Brewers offense the rest of the way. Holderman was pulled in the seventh for Manny Banuelos after putting runners on second and third with one out. Banuelos loaded the bases after hitting the first batter he face and then proceeded to get the next two hitters out by way of an Andrew McCutchen flyout and then a strikeout.
Yerry De Los Santos and Wil Crowe made quick work over the eight and ninth innings throwing only 26 pitches between the two of them while racking up a combined five strikeouts to the one hit given up by Crowe.
If the Pirates plan on adding to the win column much over the last stretch of the season then this is likely to be the blueprint they’ll have to follow. Pushing across a few runs with a couple timely hits and the bullpen holding on to the lead. Ben Cherington made three trades that all included bringing back a reliever so he may very well be betting on this blueprint moving forward.
Brewers @ Pirates
Time: 7:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Tyler Beede (1-1, 3.12)
Brewers Starter: Freddy Peralta (3-2, 4.42)
Beede Notes: This will be Tyler Beede’s first start for the Pirates and his first MLB start since 2019. Tyler threw a season high three innings on Sunday while throwing only 34 pitches. He’ll be pitching on two days rest so it’s likely he won’t stay in long and will depend mostly on his efficiency. Over the course of 17 appearances and 30.2 IP since coming over to the Pirates he’s carried a 2.64 ERA. He’s had a sub 2.00 ERA in each of June and July.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Our Wednesday night lineup.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/9fhEbJa9tG
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 3, 2022
Brewers
1. C. Yelich (L) LF
2. Willy Adames (R) SS
3. Rowdy Tellez (L) 1B
4. A. McCutchen (R) DH
5. Kolten Wong (L) 2B
6. Hunter Renfroe (R) RF
7. Luis Urias (R) 3B
8. Omar Narvaez (L) C
9. Tyrone Taylor (R) CF
