MILWAUKEE _ Right-hander Daniel Hudson watched the baseball fly toward the right-field foul pole at Miller Park late Wednesday night. He turned away as it crashed in the seats. With one swing, the Milwaukee Brewers' Domingo Santana, the first batter Hudson faced in the seventh inning, injected life into a crowd which had been silenced the previous two games.
Santana's two-run, go-ahead homer off Hudson was the difference in a 4-3 come-from-behind win, as the first-place Brewers moved five games ahead of the Pirates (33-39). Milwaukee (39-35) has a shot to salvage a series split with a win in the finale, a Thursday matinee.
Right-hander Trevor Williams, who on Friday set down the last 12 batters he faced in order, overstayed his welcome by two batters Wednesday. Nursing a 3-1 lead, he pitched to two batters in the seventh. Both scored once Williams departed. He was charged with three runs on six hits and two walks, one intentional, in six-plus innings. He struck out seven, tying a career-high.
Right-hander Junior Guerra allowed three runs in six innings, giving up six hits and walking five.
Before his start Wednesday, Guerra had flashed a 2.84 ERA with questionable command. In his previous five starts, he averaged more than a walk every other inning. Guerra was accustomed to success against the Pirates, as he'd posted a 1.42 ERA in four previous appearances against them. Hurdle was asked whether patience was a virtue with Guerra on the mound.
"It can be," Hurdle said. "There's a little history of that. Every game has its own period where you kind of feel things out. I think hitters, against certain (pitchers), you're better off being ready early in the count. Some guys, you want to make sure they throw some strikes."
The Pirates practiced patience, and it paid dividends. Eventually.
Josh Harrison walked in the first and was erased on a double-play line drive. Andrew McCutchen and Jordy Mercer walked in the second, loading the bases, and Chris Stewart followed with a sharp grounder up the middle, which resulted in an inning-ending double play.
Adam Frazier led off the third with a double, his first of three hits in the game, Harrison blooped a run-scoring knock to shallow left-center field and raced around first base and took advantage of a bad throw to secure a double. The Brewers tied the score on Santana's two-out RBI single in the third.
Guerra walked Josh Bell and McCutchen in the fourth, but Mercer and Stewart struck out to strand them. They would not spoil the next chance. With two outs in the fifth and Frazier standing on second base, having doubled for the second time, John Jaso cracked a double through the extreme infield shift and down the right-field line. The Pirates were back in front.
Bell, who snapped an 0-for-9 stretch Wednesday with two hits and a walk, smacked a sixth-inning leadoff homer run against Guerra, who was laboring. Bell's 13 home runs this season are the most hit by a Pirates rookie prior to the All-Star break since Ralph Kiner hit 15 in 1946.
The way Williams barreled through the Brewers in the fifth and sixth, a pair of 1-2-3 innings, Hurdle saw fit to send him back to the mound for the seventh. A single and a double got Williams the hook. Left-hander Tony Watson induced a run-scoring grounder from pinch-hitter Eric Thames and whiffed Eric Sogard to bring the Pirates one out from escaping with a lead.
Hurdle summoned Hudson, who seemed to have gotten on track after a rough spell this spring. In nine previous outings in June, Hudson had allowed one run and posted a .115 opponent's batting average. But after missing away with a slider and a two-seam fastball, Hudson tried a four-seamer off the plate. Santana belted it for a go-ahead, opposite-field home run.
Mercer singled in the eighth, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games, but right-hander Jacob Barnes notched three strikeouts, taking advantage of a strike zone which appeared to anger a number of Pirates hitters.
