Colin Moran continues home opener heroics, but Brewers rally to beat Pirates in 11th inning

This was a home opener like never before for the Pittsburgh Pirates, playing in a pandemic Monday night with no fans at PNC Park and enduring a one hour, 42-minute rain delay in the second inning.

If that wasn’t weird enough, the Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers got their first taste of MLB’s new extra-innings rule, where the runner who made the final out in the previous inning starts the next inning on second base.

Colin Moran homered for the third consecutive home opener, smacking a pair of solo shots, to spark the Pirates to a four-run lead. But the Brewers rallied tie it with a four-run ninth, and took the lead on Eric Sogard’s double down the left-field line to score Brock Holt from second base in the 11th inning for a 6-5 victory.

David Phelps struck out Bryan Reynolds with Kevin Newman on third to end the game.

“I think it’s probably what we expected,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We got in a situation where we just didn’t execute. We had the right situation that we wanted and we failed to execute.”

If there is one thing the Pirates can count on, it’s that Moran will hit a home run in the home opener: In 2018, he received a curtain call after hitting a first-inning grand slam off Minnesota’s Lance Lynn; last year, Moran blasted a leadoff shot in the eighth off Mike Mayers of St. Louis.

“I don’t know,” Moran said, searching for an explanation for his success. “I didn’t realize it was opening day for a while. Just felt weird out there. Felt good to be out in PNC and play a meaningful game.”

Moran led off the second inning by drilling Adrian Houser’s 1-2 pitch into the right-field seats for his second homer of the season and a 1-0 lead. It was the only hit Houser allowed in five innings. In the seventh, Moran took a Devin Williams 1-1 pitch for a 438-foot ride that cleared the right-field seats and bounced into the Allegheny River. Moran is the 37th player to put a ball into the river at PNC Park.

Moran now has three homers in four games this season after hitting 13 in 149 games last season.

The game also marked the return of Pirates pitcher Chad Kuhl, returning to the mound for his first regular-season game since June 26, 2018. The right-hander missed last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Kuhl pitched in piggyback with lefty Steven Brault, who got the start and gave up one hit and two walks with a strikeout in two innings. Kuhl replaced Brault after the rain delay, retiring the the side in the third and getting double plays in the fourth and fifth.

Kuhl allowed three hits and two walks but had four strikeouts – getting both Ryan Braun and Jedd Gyorko looking — before leaving with two outs in the sixth and Lorenzo Cain on first. Chris Stratton replaced Kuhl to face Avisail Garcia, but Jacob Stallings threw out Cain as he attempted to steal second base to end the sixth.

It also was the season debut of Gregory Polanco, who returned to the lineup after missing the past two weeks with a positive test for covid-19. Shelton eased Polanco back into action by having him serve as the designated hitter and bat seventh, and Polanco went 0 for 2 with a walk.

The Brewers tied it in the seventh against Nik Turley, as Garcia hit a leadoff double down the right-field line, reached third on shortstop Kevin Newman’s error and scored on Cain’s single to left. Turley got out of a bases-loaded jam by getting Yelich to fly out to center.

Moran’s blast gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the seventh. They added two more runs when Jarrod Dyson hit a two-out, full-count, bases-loaded singled past a diving Keston Hiura at second to score Bryan Reynolds and pinch runner Guillermo Heredia, and another when Jacob Stallings scored on a wild pitch by Alex Claudio.

The Brewers rallied to tie it in the ninth, loading the bases with one out against Michael Feliz. Feliz hit Keston Hiura with a pitch to score Justin Smoak to make it 5-2, and Eric Sogard scored on Christian Yelich’s groundout to first to make it 5-3. Kyle Crick replaced Feliz with runners on second and third, and gave up a double to Ryan Braun down the left-field line to score both and tie the game.

MLB’s new extra-innings rule came into play, as the Brewers started the 10th with a runner, Omar Narvaez, on second base. With one out, Narvaez took third on a Dovydas Neverauskas wild pitch. Neverauskas, however, struck out Smoak and Brock Holt to get out of the jam. The Pirates used Cole Tucker to pinch run for Jacob Stallings, advancing to third on an Adam Frazier groundout but the inning ended with Kevin Newman ground out to short.