Brewers homer twice off Joe Musgrove to beat Pirates

To say Brandon Woodruff was stingy against the Pittsburgh Pirates is an understatement. The Milwaukee Brewers right-hander was downright selfish in silencing their bats with swing-and-miss and soft contact.

When Woodruff wasn’t striking out the Pirates – he had 10 Ks – he refused to let them hit balls out of the infield.

The Pirates had no answer for Woodruff, who surrendered only one hit to lead the Brewers to a 3-0 victory over the Pirates Wednesday night at PNC Park.

“I don’t think we’re pressing at all,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I didn’t see any pressed at-bats tonight. I saw aggressive swings. I just saw a guy who executed pitches.”

Woodruff (1-1) allowed only one hit to leave the infield – a fly out to left in the fifth by right fielder Gregory Polanco. Only third baseman Phillip Evans reached base against the Brewers right-hander, beating out a dribbler down the third-base line in the first and drawing a walk to lead off the seventh.

“It’s not like he worked out of the zone at all,” Shelton said. “He walked Evans. That was it. The only thing you can try to do is break his rhythm. We tried to do that. He stood out there, waited for us to get back in the box and threw strikes. When that happens, and guys are constantly ahead, constantly executing breaking pitches, and then being able to elevate the fastball out of the zone and elevate the fastball, this is the first time even in games I’ve watched that I’ve seen somebody rushing it up there 96 to 98. It was jumping out of his hand tonight.”

After striking out Josh Bell for the third time, Woodruff was pulled with one out in the seventh and Evans on first. The Brewers brought David Phelps in from the bullpen, and he struck out Colin Moran and Bryan Reynolds.

Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove (0-2) allowed three runs on four hits, including a pair of home runs. He gave up three walks but had eight strikeouts, including Christian Yelich twice.

Avisail Garcia hit a leadoff double to right in the third, and Ben Gamel followed by crushing an 0-1 changeup over the right-field seats to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead. The Pirates outfielders didn’t even move.

“Really, the changeup that I hung to Gamel is the one pitch I’d take back, I guess, if I could,” Musgrove said.

The Brewers almost scored again in the third but left fielder Bryan Reynolds threw out a runner at the plate for the second consecutive game. In Tuesday’s 8-6 win, he turned a double play by catching Garcia’s fly and throwing out Ryan Braun. This time, when Keston Hiura hit a two-out single to left, Reynolds got a good jump and fired a one-hop laser to Jacob Stallings to peg Eric Sogard.

And it wasn’t even close.

Musgrove served up another home run in the sixth, when Keston Hiura drove a 1-1 pitch to center field and over the outstretched glove of 5-foot-9 Jarrod Dyson for a 3-0 lead.

“Hiura is a good fastball hitter,” Shelton said. “He hit the ball out. You don’t see very many right-handed hitters hit the ball out that way in this ballpark.”

The Pirates dropped to 2-4 heading into their five-game road trip, which starts with a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Brewers took two out of three against the Pirates, who blew a four-run lead in a 6-5 loss in 11 innings on Monday night but rallied for an 8-6 victory on Tuesday night.

“We lost a tight one in the first game of the series and came back with a win (Tuesday) night,” Evans said. “(This) was just one of those pitchers’ duels, and their guy beat us.”