Pirates offense fails to build momentum in loss to Brewers

When Quinn Priester was asked Tuesday night about the lack of run support from his Pittsburgh Pirates teammates, he was decisive with his answer.

“I’m focusing on what I’m doing to help the team,” he said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “Certainly, when we score some runs, I’ll get up and high five. But I’m really focused on what I’m about to do.”

That focus led to Priester (0-4, 4.33 ERA) throwing five scoreless innings, but he wasn’t perfect, allowing four runs on six hits in the second. That was one of two chief reasons the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers (25-17) held on for a 4-3 victory against the Pirates (19-24) at American Family Field.

Perhaps most of the blame for the fifth Pirates loss in the past seven games should be placed on their hitters, who turned in another weak effort, getting only three hits. In the past 15 games, the Pirates have scored two or fewer runs eight times.

That’s nothing new when Priester’s on the mound, but at least the Pirates scored twice for him after getting shut out in his previous three starts.

Nick Gonzales’ two-run home run in the fourth inning provided the only cushion for his fellow first-round draft choice, the pitcher in 2019, the second baseman in 2020. They were the first runs scored on Priester’s behalf since his first start this season April 19.

But the next 15 Pirates batters were retired in order against Brewers starter Joe Ross and relievers Bryan Hudson, Elvis Peguero and Trevor Megill. Seven of the 15 struck out. Overall, the Pirates struck out 13 times.

Manager Derek Shelton credited Ross executing at the top of the zone and throwing an effective slider. Then, the Brewers’ bullpen was in almost total control over the final four innings.

“You get to the back end of their bullpen and it’s really good,” Shelton said. “You get Peguero and Megill at the end. Those are two power arms. They don’t give up a lot of hard contact.”

With two outs in the ninth, Connor Joe solved Megill by smacking his sixth home run of the season and third in the past three games, but Jack Suwinski struck out to end the game.

Joe has hit safely in seven of his past eight games (10 for 30. 333), leads the Pirates with a .293 batting average and 21 RBIs and has raised his OPS to .890, seventh in the National League and second to the Brewers’ William Contreras in the NL Central.

He was the only Pirates player who didn’t strike out Tuesday.

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Bryan Reynolds followed up his five-hit game Monday with an 0-for-4 performance. Andrew McCutchen also was 0 for 4, but he was robbed of extra bases in the eighth inning when center fielder Sal Frelick made a diving catch on the warning track of his 107.6-mph shot.

With a few better pitches by Priester in the second inning, three hits and three runs might have been enough for him to record his first victory of the season.

“I thought he was sharp,” Shelton said. “After (the second inning), it was probably the sharpest we’ve seen him with the mix (of pitches). It’s just we’ve got to eliminate the big inning.”

Shelton said Priester’s sinker was effective.

“It’s something that continues to get better,” he said. “It’s something that’s going to get left-handers on the ground and it’s something that he has to improve the location of to be able to get left-handers.”

Said Priester: “It’s awesome to get guys to swing at that pitch.”

But neither the manager nor his pitcher could ignore the Brewers’ four-run second.

“The bigger component is we have to make sure we minimize innings and that’s been the one thing that he’s battled throughout all of his starts,” Shelton said, “even dating back to last year.

“It’s execution. It seems like we have an inning where we lose a little bit of the execution on the plate.”

The Brewers jumped on Priester decisively in the second. Everyone in the batting order came to the plate, led by Frelick’s two-run homer and RBI singles by Brice Turang and Christian Yelich.

“Obviously, I need to do things better in that second,” Priester said. “Trying to get ahead and throw strikes and missing a little bit over the plate.

“But after that, I was proud of how I settled in and battled. (Catcher Yasmani Grandal) came up to me and (said), ‘Stop worrying about being too perfect and just trust the stuff.’

“The stuff was there, just need to avoid that big inning, be able to make a pitch to get out of it.”