Willy Adames hits 2 homers, accounts for 7 RBIs as Brewers beat Pirates

Willy Adames had something extra for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and it led to a career game for the Milwaukee Brewers shortstop.

Adames went 4 for 5 with his first career multi-home run game and a career-high seven RBIs to lead the Brewers to a 12-8 win Tuesday night before an announced crowd of 8,493 at PNC Park. It marked the first time this season the Pirates (8-9) scored four runs and lost.

They can blame Adames. He hit a two-run homer in the first and a two-run double in the fifth off starter Mitch Keller, a three-run bomb off Heath Hembree in the sixth and a single off Beau Sulser in the ninth to fall a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

“Willy Adames had a really huge game,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said, blaming the inability to put batters away in favorable counts. “That was the biggest thing. We got into good counts, and we just didn’t put guys away. Something our bullpen has done very effectively over the first 16 games is when they’ve gotten into those counts, we’ve either gotten weak contact or we got a strikeout. We just let too many balls in the middle.”

The Pirates were shorthanded from the start. They placed All-Star center fielder Bryan Reynolds and infielder/outfielder Cole Tucker on the covid-19 injured list while awaiting test results, and lefty reliever Anthony Banda (non-covid illness) on the 10-day IL. The Pirates recalled infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano and outfielder Jack Suwinski from Double-A Altoona and lefty reliever Sam Howard from Triple-A Indianapolis.

The short notice of those moves caused the Pirates to turn to Akron, where the Curve was scheduled to play. Suwinski and Marcano drove a rental car two hours to PNC Park, arriving during batting practice.

“It would have been challenging for us to get Class Triple-A guys here with as late as we knew,” Shelton said. “Having two guys in Akron who were on the roster, it seemed like it was the best fit.”

Suwinski started in right field, and right-hander Sulser pitched the final three innings in relief, marking the first time the Pirates had a pair of players make their major league debuts in the same game since, coincidentally enough, Reynolds and Tucker against the San Francisco Giants on April 20, 2019.

Keller got off to a rough start when his 3-2 pitch to leadoff batter Kolten Wong was high. That put a runner on base for Adames, who hit a 405-foot homer to straightaway center that sailed just over the outstretched glove of Jake Marisnick for a 2-0 Brewers lead.

After a 31-pitch first inning, Keller retired the Brewers on seven pitches in the second. Lorenzo Cain reached on a one-out error by second baseman Josh VanMeter, but Keller got Jace Peterson to ground into a double play.

The Brewers got a scare when Kevin Newman led off the bottom of the second by lining a comebacker off the foot of starter Brandon Woodruff for a single. Peterson slid to stop the ball from rolling down the dugout stairs and prevent Newman from taking an extra base, but Pirates catcher Roberto Perez took care of that by doubling down the third-base line to score Newman and cut it to 2-1.

Things unraveled for Keller in the fifth, when first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo failed to scoop a Ke’Bryan Hayes throw from third and allowed Cain to reach on an infield single. Wong executed a bunt down the third-base line, and Adames drove in both with a liner to the left-field corner for a 4-1 Brewers lead.

“They’re a great lineup,” Keller said. “They flip you right-left, right-left all the way down the lineup with good hitters on both sides. … Adames had a career night. Hat’s off to him. He was seeing it well and hit the ball well. It was just a tough lineup.”

That was it for Keller, who allowed four runs on five hits and two walks with one strikeout in 4⅔ innings. Where Keller hummed through the first four innings on 60 pitches, Woodruff threw 84 but had six strikeouts.

It caught up to Woodruff in the bottom of the fifth, when Daniel Vogelbach led off with a double, Hayes drew a walk and Ben Gamel doubled down the left-field line to score Vogelbach and cut it to 4-2. Brent Suter replaced Woodruff but gave up a tying, two-run single up the middle to Newman that scored Hayes and Gamel.

The Brewers tagged lefty Aaron Fletcher for three more runs in the sixth when Tyrone Taylor tripled to score Rowdy Tellez for the go-ahead run and Omar Narvaez singled to right to score Taylor for a 6-4 lead.

Peterson and Wong reached on singles, setting up Adames for a three-run homer when he sent Hembree’s 1-0 slider 413 feet into the left-field seats for a 10-4 lead.

“It’s a momentum changer,” Brewers outfielder Andrew McCutchen said. “It changes the dynamic of the way things have been going. All it takes is us maybe talking about something, going out there and doing it, having a big inning like that. Next thing you know, we’re going, ‘OK, we can do this.’”

Michael Chavis hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to center to score Hayes in the seventh and cut it to 10-5.

Suwinski went 1 for 4, reaching on an error by second baseman Wong in the eighth inning, advancing to third on Marcano’s double to right and scoring on Vogelbach’s groundout to first to make it 10-6. Marcano scored on a Hayes sacrifice fly to center to cut it to 10-7.

Sulser started by striking out McCutchen, the five-time All-Star and former MVP, the first of his four strikeouts.

“After I got that strikeout, it allowed me to really settle in and know, ‘Hey, you can do this,’” Sulser said. “After than, it was just attacking and knowing that your stuff can play.”

Sulser retired the first six batters he faced in order before giving up ninth-inning singles to Adames and McCutchen. After Sulser intentionally walked Tellez to load the bases, the Brewers scored for an 11-7 lead when Chavis’ throw from third pulled Tsutsugo off first base.

That led to Howard’s season debut and a nice play by Marcano. Narvaez singled to left to score McCutchen for a 12-7 lead, but Marcano scooped it and threw out Tellez at the plate.

The Pirates added a run in the ninth when Perez grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Tsutsugo from third to make it 12-8. Suwinski got his first major league hit when he singled with two outs, putting runners on first and second. The Brewers brought in closer Josh Hader, who got Marcano looking at a called third strike to end the game.

“Both guys did a good job,” Shelton said of Sulser and Suwinski. “It’s exciting when you are able to have guys make their major league debuts and they actually perform.”