Charlie Morton cruised through the first three innings on Friday night before experiencing trouble in the fourth, which proved costly as the Pirates were unable to capitalize on a couple of bases loaded situations in a 5-3 loss to the Brewers.
The Pirates led 2-0 up till that point on two Russell Martin RBI’s and had a chance to blow things open with the bases loaded and one out in the third. Pedro Alvarez then struck out and Neil Walker popped out to third to end the inning.
The Brewers finally got to Morton in the fourth when Ryan Braun led off with a double. Aramis Ramirez walked and Khris Davis followed by getting hit by pitch. Two batters later, the score would be tied on a Scooter Gennett 2 RBI double to right-center. Martin Maldonado ended the scoring in the inning with a RBI single.
“I didn’t make pitches when I needed to make pitches,” said Morton. “There was a huge momentum shift. They put three runs up on the board and I gave up that lead off double to Braun, walked Ramirez and gave Scooter a chance with the bases loaded. 0-0 and he’s sitting dead-red and he just drove it in the gap, so that fourth inning right there is crucial if you don’t execute pitches and I didn’t.”
The Brewers would add one in the fifth by way of a Carlos Gomez moonshot to center and one in the sixth on a Gomez RBI single while the Pirates were only able to get one more across on an Andrew McCutchen RBI double in the seventh. Russell Martin came within feet of tying things up one batter earlier on a flyout to left.
The Pirates would leave 11 runners stranded and the bases loaded twice once everything was said and done. Not something you would expect from a team that put up 11 just 24 hours ago.
“We weren’t able to execute the at bats,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “We hit a couple balls hard. Martin murdered the ball to left field and the ball didn’t leave. Walker late hit the ball hard, but there were a lot of at bats in-between. The strikeouts, we might have chased a ball out of the zone on one. Marte’s popup in the infield was close. He’s looking to tie the game on a fastball, but it had more late movement than he anticipated. We just weren’t able to get that at bat when we needed it tonight repeatedly.”
Worth Noting
Jordy Mercer left Friday’s game after the third inning when Maldonado slid into him at second base while trying to turn a double play. Mercer says it’s only a bruise but it was too sore to continue playing on.
“I tried to run around the bases, but had no push,” Mercer said.
He will test out the ankle tomorrow and is a game time decision.
Starter’s Lines
Morton (L, 0-2): 6 IN, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K’s, 2 HP, 1 HR. 91 Pitches (65 Strikes).
Lohse (W, 3-1): 6 1/3 IN, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K’s. 110 Pitches (70 Strikes).
The Pirates will look to bounce back tomorrow evening in the third game of the four-game set at 7:05.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) Wandy Rodriguez (PIT): 0-2, 7.31 ERA
(RHP) Matt Garza (MIL): 0-2, 3.43 ERA
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
