Brewers belt 12 hits, including 2 home runs, to beat Pirates in doubleheader nightcap

After being blasted for 19 hits by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday, the Milwaukee Brewers answered with a double-digit hit show in the nightcap.

The Brewers belted 12 hits, including home runs by Rowdy Tellez and Avisail Garcia, in a 6-0 win in the second game of a split seven-inning doubleheader before 24,081 at PNC Park. The Pirates (42-75) won the first game 14-4 to snap an eight-game losing streak.

Aaron Ashby, a 23-year-old left-hander, struck out four and allowed three hits in four scoreless innings, and Brad Boxberger (5-3) earned the win for the Brewers (71-47).

“Some of that is baseball,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Some is that Ashby’s got a good arm, man.”

Pirates starter Mitch Keller (3-10) allowed two runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out three on 77 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, though he got strong defensive play behind him through the first three inninngs.

Pirates catcher Michael Perez threw out Christian Yelich attempting to steal second base to end the first inning, second baseman Rodolfo Castro turned a 4-3 double play to end the second and center fielder Bryan Reynolds threw out Willy Adames at home plate to end the third.

“When it got there on one hop, I knew we had a chance,” Keller said of Yelich’s single on the play at the plate. “Bryan’s absolutely incredible out there. I knew we had a really good shot of getting him out. He put a money thow on, Mikey put a really good tag on him and it was just an awesome play. The defense behind me was great. We had a couple double plays that got me out of some innings. Hats off to them just keeping us in the game there.”

That luck ended in the fourth, when the Brewers took a 2-0 lead. Jace Peterson singled to center to score Garcia, and Omar Narvaez scored when Lorenzo Cain grounded into a forceout at second. And the Pirates’ defense failed behind Chris Stratton in the sixth. After Peterson drew a one-out walk, Cain hit a pop fly down the third-base line that saw shortstop Kevin Newman stumble over the back heel of third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, only for both players to fall down and the ball drop fair for a single.

“Our view from the dugout, I thought that was way foul and it continued to come back,” Shelton said. “It’s a ball that I don’t think either one of them assumed out of play. They had a good read on it. Kevin called it and they made contact and it ended up falling.”

Perez made a throwing error trying to pick off Cain at first base, and Peterson beat first baseman John Nogowski’s throw to score from second to give the Brewers a 3-0 lead.

Tellez followed with a pinch-hit two-run homer to make it 5-0. The 445-foot shot cleared the right-field seats and bounced into the Allegheny River, making Tellez the 42nd player in PNC Park history to put one in the water. Garcia hit a solo homer off reliever Shea Spitzbarth — who was added as the Pirates’ 27th man for the doubleheader — in the seventh to give the Brewers a 6-0 lead.

“Early on, we played really well defensively,” Shelton said, “then had a couple plays that we didn’t make that we should have made.”