What a difference a day makes: Brewers follow a blowout victory with a frustrating loss to the Pirates

PITTSBURGH — Things were lined up quite nicely for the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday afternoon.

They'd just beaten the Pittsburgh Pirates the night before by two touchdowns and a field goal. They were facing a winless starting pitcher with an 8.29 earned run average.

And, they had Aaron Ashby back on the mound after a two-week stint on the injured list.

But as happens so frequently in baseball, reality didn't come close to meeting expectation. Three double plays in the first four innings undercut the offense and Ashby couldn't get out of the fourth inning as the Brewers were dumped, 7-4, at PNC Park.

"We swung the bats really well the first three innings," manager Craig Counsell said. "Bunch of good at-bats. Unfortunately the double plays kind of reduced the stress on the starter, and then he settled down."

Christian Yelich and Kolten Wong homered for Milwaukee, which actually out-hit Pittsburgh, 11-9.

The Brewers picked up right where they left off Friday with a run on a couple of hits in the first inning off Bryse Wilson, who'd been recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis prior to the game.

And Ashby, who'd been sidelined with tightness in his left forearm, got a double-play grounder in the first inning and struck out three straight batters after walking Daniel Vogelbach to start the Pirates' second.

But it also began looking like it might be one of those days after Yelich lined into an unassisted double play in the top of the second with Jace Peterson on third and Jonathan Davis on second to retire the Brewers, and Rowdy Tellez grounded into a double play to erase a leadoff walk by Willy Adames in the third.

"Yelich's line drive that ended up in the double play was the play that hurts," Counsell said. "That gets through and it's 3-0."

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Pittsburgh tied the game on a Bryan Reynolds groundout in the bottom of the third and then took the lead one batter later on a two-run homer by Michael Chavis.

After Victor Caratini followed a leadoff single by Luis Urías by grounding into a double play, Peterson struck out and the Brewers could only shake their heads at their collective luck — eight baserunners through four innings with only one run to show for it.

Ashby's day ended three batters into the Pittsburgh fourth when rookie hotshot Oneil Cruz belted a homer to right.

"The two home runs, that put runs on the board," Counsell said. "There wasn't a lot of hard contact; there were probably three balls that were hit hard — one was a double-play ball and then the two that were hit out of the park.

"That means runs. The leadoff guy getting on in the third hurt him, coming around to the top of the lineup. But he came out healthy, so we'll move forward."

Ashby (1-6) allowed five hits, four runs and a walk while striking out six in his 62-pitch outing. He topped out at 97 mph on the radar gun with his sinker, induced a game-high eight swings and misses with three of those coming on his slider (31% of his offerings).

"The slider was the pitch that I wanted to see how it felt, and it felt great," Ashby said. "I think there was probably less stamina than two weeks ago when I was making consecutive starts. But other than that, I felt pretty good."

Yelich's solo homer in the fifth was his first since June 16 and made it a 4-2 game.

But consecutive Trevor Gott walks in the bottom of the frame came back to haunt, as Hoby Milner allowed his first two inherited runners to score on the season on a Vogelbach single and Diego Castillo drove in Vogelbach with a double one batter later.

Wong's homer came with one out in the eighth. Then with two outs and Urías on first, Peterson doubled to right and Urías scored on a terrific head-first slide into home to pull Milwaukee within 7-4.

Chi Chi González saved the Brewers' bullpen with three scoreless innings behind Milner, but the offense couldn't make anything of Yelich's leadoff walk in the ninth.

"I think we're doing a good job," Counsell said when asked about the offense on the six-game road trip, which concludes Sunday. "I don't think it means anything for tomorrow; we've just got to keep doing a good job.

"But we created opportunities again today."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers follow blowout victory with a frustrating loss to the Pirates