Pirates blow four-run lead, as Brewers take advantage of Chad Kuhl's control issues

On the day the Pittsburgh Pirates sent a starting pitcher to the minors to work on his command, Chad Kuhl had control issues of his own.

For this, he blamed the baseballs.

Kuhl walked four batters and hit another to allow the Milwaukee Brewers to rally from a four-run deficit for a 7-4 win Saturday afternoon at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

A thing of beauty this was not, yet Kuhl believed the balls were a gem.

“I think we got pretty much pearls today,” Kuhl said. “They were bad. I mean, we’ve had bad baseballs for the first part of the year. They were really super chalky. … So tough to get your stuff to spin and stuff like that with pearls, with brand-new baseballs.”

Before the game, Pirates manager Derek Shelton announced right-hander Mitch Keller had been optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis to work on his fastball command. The Pirates were counting on Kuhl overcoming his early-season struggles, as he had 15 walks in his first three starts but only two over his last three.

Kuhl blamed the batch of baseballs for the increased number of walks in this series — the Pirates had 11 in Friday’s 7-4 loss — and said it affected the sharpness of his slider more than anything. According to Statcast, Kuhl threw his slider on half (46) of his 92 pitches.

“You can not give away free pitches. You can’t give away free outs,” Shelton said, “and we did, just because of the fact that we did not command the baseball.”

Kuhl (0-4) took the loss as the Pirates (23-40) dropped their sixth consecutive game, tying their longest losing streak of the season. The win kept the Brewers (37-27) in first place in the NL Central, 13 ¹⁄₂ games ahead of the Pirates.

The Pirates spotted Kuhl a 4-0 lead after scoring three runs in the first inning off Brewers starter Corbin Burnes, who had allowed more than two earned runs only twice in his previous 10 starts.

Kuhl was careful not to connect the bad batch of baseballs to the sport’s foreign substance scandal but pointed to the ineffectiveness of Burnes as evidence.

Where Kuhl gave up six runs (five earned) on five hits in 3 ¹⁄₃ innings, Burnes allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits, with three walks and eight strikeouts.

“You could see that Burnes wasn’t sharp,” Kuhl said. “I think they were bad for both sides. … Burnes is good. His line could have been seven runs. He left with four and bases loaded and very uncharacteristic for him, too. So I felt like grip was definitely an issue for a lot of my stuff.”

Adam Frazier hit a leadoff single, stole second base and advanced to third on a bloop single to right by Phillip Evans. Both runners scored when Bryan Reynolds hit a comebacker that bounced off the back of Burnes’ foot, only for Burnes to make a wild throw to first that allowed Reynolds to reach third. After Colin Moran walked, Reynolds scored when Jacob Stallings hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

The Pirates added another run in the second, when Erik Gonzalez and Ka’ai Tom hit back-to-back triples down the right-field line. Burnes recovered to strike out the next three.

The Brewers rallied, starting with the Pirates making two errors on one play.

Former Pirate Pablo Reyes hit a liner that handcuffed shortstop Erik Gonzalez and bounced off his leg and into center field, where Bryan Reynolds’ errant throw to second base allowed Reyes to reach third. Reyes scored when Burnes beat the throw from third for an infield single, cutting the Pirates’ lead to 4-1.

“It knuckled a lot on me,” Erik Gonzalez said, through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez, “and it caught me off-guard.”

In the third, the Brewers tested the strength of right fielder Gregory Polanco’s left arm when Christian Yelich singled and scored from first on an Omar Narvaez singled to right to make it 4-2.

Reyes singled to start the fourth, and Kuhl loaded the bases by walking Jace Peterson and Daniel Vogelbach. Yelich doubled to left to score all three and give the Brewers a 5-4 lead. Clay Holmes replaced Kuhl, and Willy Adames followed with a ground-rule double to score Yelich to make it 6-4, then scored on a single to center by Narvaez for a 7-4 lead.

“That pitch just has to be down,” Holmes said. “He’s a guy that’s looking for anything up. He’s able to get his hands extended. It’s a pitch that needed to be down. I was definitely looking for a ground ball there. I think if it was down and a little off edge, it’s either a swing and miss or a weak ground ball there. It was just a pitch that wasn’t executed, and he’s swinging the bat well and made us pay.”

The Pirates answered by loading the bases before the Brewers pulled Burnes. Reliever Trevor Richards got out of the jam by getting the next three batters — Polanco, Gonzalez and Tom — to go down swinging. They stranded two more runners in the sixth, when Frazier doubled and Reynolds drew a two-out walk only for Moran to go down on a called third strike.

“We had a good start offensively,” Shelton said. “We had the bases loaded and nobody out, and we couldn’t make contact. We’ve got to make adjustments there. We had some situations there to score runs. We got the back-end of their bullpen, but we’ve got to be better and we have to find a way to put the ball in play.”