Who's on first? Pirates short at position after Erik Gonzalez leaves loss to Brewers

A fourth consecutive loss became the least of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ problems once Erik Gonzalez walked off the field after legging out an infield single.

Gonzalez started at first base Thursday when Colin Moran was placed on the 10-day injured list with a fracture in his left hand, only to leave the game against the Milwaukee Brewers with right side discomfort.

That pressed the Pirates to ask this question: Who’s on first?

The Milwaukee Brewers weren’t waiting for an answer on their way to a 7-2 win before 11,074 at PNC Park, the Pirates’ first home game with covid-19 restrictions lifted to allow a full capacity crowd (38,362) and followed by a free concert by country artists Big & Rich.

It was the ninth consecutive win for the first-place Brewers (49-33), who entered with an 18-game lead over the last-place Pirates (29-51). Now, the Pirates have to figure out who will play first base.

“Yeah, it is a concern,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “It’s something we’ll probably talk through, we will talk through it, when I get done with this, just to see what our next step is.”

Phillip Evans is the most likely option at first base, but he already was used as a pinch hitter before Gonzalez pulled up. Their options limited, the Pirates moved Ben Gamel to first from right field and replaced him with Jared Oliva, who was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis. If not for Gamel, Shelton said he “would have had to get really creative,” possibly moving Jacob Stallings to first and using backup Michael Perez at catcher.

That’s hardly a long-term solution, even though Gamel provided Pirates a solo homer to lead off the fifth inning. That was the only run allowed by Milwaukee right-hander Corbin Burnes (4-4), who gave up four hits with one walk and five strikeouts on 94 pitches in 7¹⁄₃ innings.

Pirates starter Wil Crowe (1-5) wasn’t near as efficient, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out six on 95 pitches (56 for strikes) in 4²⁄₃ innings.

Crowe walked Tyrone Taylor on four pitches to start the second inning, and Jace Peterson drilled a 2-2 curveball to right-center for a triple to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead. Jackie Bradley Jr. doubled down the right-field line to score Peterson to make it 2-0. Crowe left runners on first and second for lefty Sam Howard, who got Omar Narvaez to ground out to second to end the fifth.

“He’s done a lot of damage against fastballs,” Crowe said. “I wasn’t going to give him a cookie. It’s kind of what he does. He hits the hard stuff. So try to spin the next one, missed it, and thought I threw 3-0 a little down. But I thought our attack plan was right on him, but a couple of pitches got away from me there and it is what it is.”

Gamel started the bottom of the fifth by sending a Burnes 2-1 cutter 400 feet over the fence in right-center to make it 2-1.

Clay Holmes walked the first two batters he faced in the sixth, Taylor and Peterson, then put both in scoring position when he was called for a balk. Keston Hiura singled to score Taylor for a 3-1 lead, putting Peterson at third to score on a sacrifice fly by Daniel Robertson.

The Brewers added three more runs off Richard Rodriguez in the ninth, on a Narvaez RBI double to the warning track in right and Taylor’s two-run single to right for a 7-1 lead. Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth and scored on a double to left by Stallings to cut it to 7-2.