Pitching on two days rest after only completing an inning, Bryse Wilson retired seven of the first eight batters he faced while allowing only a single in the second inning. Of those eight batters though four of them put a ball in play that was over 100 MPH.
With one out in the third inning Wilson began to unravel. He walked Garrett Mitchell before each of the next four hitters each collected a base hit while scoring three runs to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 3-0 lead. Wilson worked his way through the inning which would be the end of his night. Giving up three earned runs, five hits, walking two batters, and striking out two. Bryse had been doing a better job of throwing strikes but on this night he only threw 29 of his 56 pitches for strikes.
Through four innings it appeared that 2021 NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes was going to have his way with the Pirates offense. The Pirates had managed only three singles to five strikeouts up to that point.
In the fifth inning the offense remembered how they tagged Burnes for four earned runs the last time they faced each other.
Kevin Newman got things started after an out with a single to left field. With runners on the corners Jason Delay — a late substitution just before game time for Tyler Heineman — singled in Newman to bring the score to 3-1. That brought up everyone’s favorite tall guy, Oneil Cruz. On a 3-1 count Burnes threw Cruz a 94.5 MPH Cutter at the bottom of the zone that he turned around at 117.5 MPH (per Baseball Savant) and hit it 437 ft to right field to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, Bryse Wilson’s replacement Eric Stout got himself into a little trouble. Throwing his second inning Stout was able to retire the first two batters. After two singles and then walking former Bucco Andrew McCutchen to load the bases with two outs, Derek Shelton brought in Yohan Ramirez. After quickly getting into a 0-2 count, batter Luis Urias worked the count full before hitting a grounder to Cruz.
This is where the good and bad of Cruz comes into play as he had plenty of time to make the throw but threw a laser into the dirt. Luckily Marc-Andre Chavis has seen enough of these throws since Oneil’s promotion that he was ready with another windmill grab to end the inning. Yohan Ramirez ended up throwing 1.1 scoreless inning.
To the top of the sixth and with one out, Rodolfo Castro tried to show up his best friend but fell 10 ft shy. Castro blasted a 2-1 changeup at 107.4 MPH to right center that went 427 ft for a 5-3 lead.
Duane Underwood Jr. pitched a clean seventh and then came out for the eighth inning. He got the first two outs before walking Omar Narvaez on a ball just off the plate. Wil Crowe entered the game for Underwood Jr. and on the second pitch recently promoted Garrett Mitchell hammered a middle-middle changeup to tie the game at five.
The Pirates threatened in the top of the 9th with two men on and only one out before Ben Gamel popped out and Chavis struck out to end the threat.
Crowe remained in the game for the ninth inning and it didn’t end well. Willy Adames singled to start the inning before Keston Hiura got a middle-middle Slider that he didn’t miss. He hit the ball to left field as it bounced off the top of the wall and out for a walk-off two run homerun and 7-5 victory.
Oneil Cruz did end the night with the three hardest hit balls on the evening.
Pirates @ Brewers
Time: 8:10 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Mitch Keller (4-10, 4.50)
Brewers Starter: Jason Alexander (2-1, 526)
Keller Notes: Following his start against the Boston Red Sox where he was only able to complete two innings due to shoulder fatigue, Mitch Keller was only able to pitch 3.2 innings against the Atlanta Braves. In that start he gave up seven runs, but only two were earned due to a costly Josh VanMeter error. Keller will look to get back into form when he was able to complete at least five innings for seven starts in a row.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Mitch on the mound.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/P0760Dw9GC
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 30, 2022
Brewers
1. Christian Yelich (L) DH
2. Willy Adames (R) SS
3. Hunter Renfroe (R) RF
4. Kolten Wong (L) 2B
5. Keston Hiura (R) 1B
6. Andrew McCutchen (R) LF
7. Jace Peterson (L) 3B
8. Victor Caratini (S) C
9. Garrett Mitchell (L) CF
