The Pirates (16-22) seemed to be on a bit of a roll after taking three consecutive series during the home stand, but once again a trip to Milwaukee veered the Bucs back into the losing column on Tuesday night. The Pirates wasted a solid Gerrit Cole start, a lost to the Brewers 5-2 in front of 24,176 at Miller Park.
Cole went 5.2 innings, giving up seven hits and three runs while striking out six. After a Rickie Weeks infield single in the 6th drove in Jean Segura with the Brewers third run, Manager Clint Hurdle pulled the trigger on Cole’s night and lefty Justin Wilson finished out the inning. Catcher Jonathan Lucroy drove in the first two Milwaukee runs with an RBI single in the bottom of the third off of Cole (3-3). The Brewers (25-14) would score twice more off of RP Jared Hughes in the seventh. Third baseman Mark Reynolds drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, and then SS Segura singled Lucroy home on a ball that glanced off the leg of Hughes.
Neil Walker got the scoring started in the bottom of the first with his eighth home run of the season off of winning pitcher Marco Estrada (3-1). Gaby Sanchez pinch-hit for Davis in the top-of-the-eighth and doubled in Pedro Alvarez for the Bucs other run. Francisco Rodriguez notched his major-league leading 16th save with a 1-2-3 bottom-of-the-ninth. SS Jordy Mercer continued to swing a hot bat with two hits, including a double. LF Jose Tabata went 3-for-4 and RF Josh Harrison added two hits of his own.
The Pirates will try again on Wednesday night against the Brewers, with LHP Francisco Liriano (0-3, 4.64) going to the hill in search of his first win of the season. Milwaukee will counter with RHP Wily Peralta (4-2, 2.17). Peralta defeated the Liriano and the Bucs on April 11 at Miller Park, giving up four hits and two runs in 7.0 IP. The righty has not given up more than three earned runs in any of his seven starts of 2014. Liriano will be starting his eighth game of the season against NL Central foes, with only a lackluster 3.2 IP against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 3 breaking up the monotony.
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