Trevor Williams ready for regular season but Pirates' bullpen blows up in loss to Indians

In his final outing of training camp, Trevor Williams looked like he was ready for the regular season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander retired seven consecutive batters before leaving with two outs, a runner on third and a two-run lead.

Then the bullpen blew up, as the Cleveland Indians punished the Pirates’ relievers on their way to an 11-7 victory Monday night at Progressive Field. The interleague rivals will complete their three-game exhibition series Wednesday night at PNC Park and face each other six times in the regular season.

Williams allowed two hits and had a strikeout in 2 2/3 innings in his tune-up for Saturday’s start against Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

“I feel really prepared,” Williams said. “It was nice to pitch against a different color uniform and get the juices flowing that way. I’m ready to go.”

The game featured the outfield debut of shortstop Cole Tucker. The 2014 first-round pick played right field in the fifth and center in the sixth, making a sliding catch on his knees at the wall.

“I was scared because walls hurt,” Tucker said. “But I felt athletic out there on the whole, which was exciting just because I’ve never really done that. But it kind of felt natural and felt like second nature. I’m excited about how I feel about how I showed.”

But all five Pirates relievers surrendered runs, giving up four homers. The Pirates got home runs by Phillip Evans, Guillermo Heredia, Josh Bell and Colin Moran but left the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings.

“We saw those guys in the middle against some really good hitters,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of his bullpen. “When we didn’t execute pitches, they put really good swings on them. Some of that has to do with the fact that the guys hitting in the middle of their order are really good.”

Evans gave them a 2-0 lead in the second when he crushed a 2-2 pitch to left off Cleveland right-hander Mike Clevinger, who allowed three runs on four hits and had five strikeouts.

Aside from a 12-pitch battle in the first with leadoff batter Cesar Hernandez, which resulted in a single to right, Williams cruised into the third. That’s when Bradley Zimmer doubled with a bloop down the left-field line that saw the Cleveland ball boy jump over the railing and scoop up before realizing the ball was still in play.

After getting Hernandez to fly out to right, Williams was pulled by manager Derek Shelton with two outs and a runner on third after throwing 55 pitches, 37 for strikes, mixing a curveball and slider with his fastball.

Chris Stratton gave up a single to the first batter he faced, Jose Ramirez, that scored Bradley Zimmer to cut it to 2-1. Francisco Lindor followed with a double to to score Ramirez and tie the score. Stratton encountered more trouble in the fourth, but it could have been worse. Shortstop Kevin Newman threw across his body to get Franmil Reyes out at the plate, and Zimmer singled to score Tyler Naquin for a 3-2 lead, but Heredia ended the inning by throwing out Roberto Perez at third from right field.

Heredia then led off the fifth with a homer to right to tie it 3-3. Jarrod Dyson singled to right, stole second and reached third on an error but was stranded when Clevinger struck out Newman and Bryan Reynolds to end the inning.

Richard Rodriguez didn’t fare any better, giving up a three-run homer to Lindor and a solo shot to former Pirate Jordan Luplow to give the Indians a 7-3 lead.

Bell hit a solo homer to right in the sixth, but the Indians answered with a Mike Freeman homer off Michael Feliz in the bottom of the inning for an 8-4 lead.

The Pirates scored on a bases-loaded walk by Adam Frazier in the seventh, but the Indians replaced Nick Wittgren with submariner Adam Cimber, who struck out Bell to end the inning.

Cleveland added two more runs in the seventh off Dovydas Neverauskas, and the Pirates answered with Moran’s leadoff homer to center and a double by Evans, who scored on Jose Osuna’s single and a throwing error. But with the bases loaded, Jacob Stallings grounded into a fielder’s choice.

Jake Bauers homered off Robbie Ehrlin for an 11-7 lead in the eighth, and James Karinchak struck out the side in the ninth to clinch the victory.