Pirates' rallies come up short in latest loss to Brewers

Trevor Williams stayed off social media on Monday, knowing that trade rumors about Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers were swirling on MLB’s trade deadline day and he had to pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers.

“The trade deadline, everything is a little heightened,” Williams said. “Other than that, my main focus today was getting Brewers out instead of checking Twitter.”

The Pirates’ roster didn’t change, as they made no deadline deals.

But getting out Brewers was a different story.

Orlando Arcia’s two-out, pinch-hit single scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning led them to a 6-5 win over the Pirates on Monday night at Miller Park.

Devin Williams and Josh Hader combined to strike out the Pirates’ final six batters to clinch the win, just two days after Hader walked five batters, including two with the bases loaded, in blowing a save Saturday night.

It marked the eighth one-run loss this season for the Pirates (10-22), who dropped three of four at Milwaukee. The Pirates return to PNC Park for an eight-game homestand starting Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs.

The Pirates got into trouble in the eighth, when Nik Turley surrendered a leadoff double to Ben Gamel (3 for 3) and walked Avisail Garcia. With two outs and a third consecutive pinch hitter coming up in Arcia, the Pirates replaced the lefty Turley with righty Chris Stratton.

Arcia hit a 2-2 slider for a single through shortstop to score Gamel for the lead. It’s the same pitch that Stratton threw that Arcia hit for a home run in Saturday’s 7-6 loss to the Brewers.

“He threw the right pitch. We just didn’t execute it,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “The one he threw him earlier in the at-bat, either the first pitch or the second pitch, was the exact pitch we wanted to throw him. We got him to 2-2 and I would’ve preferred he threw him two sliders in a row. It wasn’t the pitch selection. It was the execution of the pitch.”

The Brewers got off to a 2-0 lead when Williams loaded the bases in the second, and Gamel and Jedd Gyorko scored on second baseman Kevin Newman’s throwing error that went off first baseman Colin Moran’s glove. Pirates shortstop Erik Gonzalez celebrated his 29th birthday by drilling a 328-foot, two-run homer off the Restaurant to be Named Later sign to left to tie it at 2-2 in the third.

Williams allowed the first two runners to reach again in each of the next two innings. Christian Yelich scored the go-ahead run on Gamel’s single to center in the third, and Omar Narvaez hit a leadoff double in the fourth and scored for a 4-2 lead on another Newman throwing error behind Williams at first while trying to turn a double play.

“That’s a tough play,” Shelton said. “Then, not having seen the replay, but it looks like the throw was up the line and the fact that it hit off (Moran’s) glove, that was what caused the error. But yeah, we’ve got to catch the ball. That’s extremely important. We’ve been inconsistent in certain places, and we can’t continue to make routine errors.”

The Pirates cut it to 4-3 in the fifth, when Cole Tucker doubled and scored on Adam Frazier’s single to right.

But Keston Hiura crushed a 1-2 fastball 416 feet to center for his eighth home run of the season and a 5-3 lead, chasing Williams after only four innings.

“He’s a really great hitter,” Williams said. “He hits the mistakes. I feel like the one mistake I made today was to Hiura in the fifth. He’s a guy that really covers the plate well. He can spoil some really good pitches and really puts the pitcher in a position to make us throw him his pitch if we don’t attack and get him out in his cold zones.”

Williams was inefficient in throwing 54 of 89 pitches for strikes, giving up seven hits and two walks to go with six strikeouts. It marked the fifth start in which Williams has lasted five innings or fewer and the fifth time he has allowed at least three runs.

The Pirates rallied in the sixth off reliever Freddy Peralta, who walked Colin Moran and gave up a double to Jacob Stallings. Jose Osuna hit a two-out single to shallow left-center to score both and tie it at 5-5. But they got into two-out trouble again, and Arcia made them pay for it.

“Unfortunately, it was some tough hops for us,” Williams said. “We’re waiting as a team to catch some breaks. It’s coming. I think it’s coming soon. I think we’re all waiting for that.”