MILWAUKEE — Colin Moran has developed into a legitimate and consistent power threat for the Pirates this season, his first since taking over for Josh Bell full-time at first base.
On Sunday, Moran was pretty darn clutch, too. His double in the 10th inning scored Bryan Reynolds from second base and helped the Pirates beat the Brewers, 6-5, in their first extra-innings affair of the season.
It also ensured Pittsburgh’s first series victory in Milwaukee since Sept. 14-16, 2018. With Reynolds starting the inning at second base because of Major League Baseball keeping its extra-innings rule from last year, Moran pulled a double into left, allowing Reynolds to score easily.
It was the second hit of the game for Moran, who also homered in the third inning. The four-RBI game gives Moran 14 on the season. Only five players in all of baseball have more.
Not to be outdone, the Pirates' best reliever, Richard Rodriguez, stepped up in a big way. Rodriguez earned the win with two innings of scoreless, hitless relief, walking none and striking out two.
The win helped the Pirates improve to 7-9 this season.
There was a solid 10 minutes Sunday where it looked like Bryan Reynolds might have been the biggest story of the game thanks to his mammoth home run in the seventh inning, which gave the Pirates a 5-3 lead.
With Adam Frazier on first following a bloop single, Reynolds absolutely crushed a full-count fastball that Brewers reliever Brad Boxberger left up in the zone, driving it 436 feet at 110.5 mph to the second deck in right field for his second home run of the season.
It was the longest homer of Reynolds’ career. The outfielder is now hitting .371 over his last nine games, with three doubles, six RBIs and eight runs scored. Against Milwaukee, Reynolds has a career .377 (40-for-106) average.
Not long after Reynolds’ blast, the Pirates bullpen did something rare: It allowed a run. Two of them, actually.
That group had extended its scoreless streak to 11⅓ innings and had allowed just one run over its past 25 innings before Chris Stratton gave up a two-run homer to Brewers first baseman Daniel Vogelbach in the bottom half of the seventh inning.
Stratton missed with a four-seamer, and Vogelbach hit a laser to right-center for his second homer of the game.
Vogelbach’s first came off of Chad Kuhl, who was actually one of the sneaky-good stories to come out of Sunday’s game after the right-hander struggled early, found a groove and had his most productive outing of the season.
Kuhl’s control was markedly better — important considering he had walked 15 in his first three starts. But against the Brewers, Kuhl pared down his repertoire and went predominately sinker-slider, those two accounting for 82 of the 97 pitches he threw.
The results were solid, as Kuhl got 11 whiffs and threw 58 strikes (60%). Kuhl allowed three runs over five, walking just one and striking out six. The total of 97 pitches qualified as the most for a Pirates starter this season.
After giving up a solo home run in the third, Kuhl retired eight of the final nine men he faced.
First-innings have been an issue for the Pirates, especially for Kuhl, and the same was true Sunday, as the Brewers jumped ahead early, 2-0.
The second batter of the game, Vogelbach, pulled a Kuhl sinker to right-center field for a solo home run. After a single from right fielder Avisail Garcia, third baseman Travis Shaw roped a double down the right-field line. Running on the pitch, Garcia scored easily.
Pittsburgh has now allowed 25 first-inning runs this season, most in MLB. Ten of those have been charged to Kuhl, while Trevor Cahill and Mitch Keller have each allowed seven. Tyler Anderson (1 run allowed) and JT Brubaker (none) have been the only starters who have fared well in the first.
Milwaukee’s lead lasted until the third inning, when Moran hit another opposite-field home run, this one coming off Brewers starter Freddy Peralta.
The Pirates’ rally started with a two-out walk to Phillip Evans before Reynolds blistered a double at 106.2 mph. Moran drove a four-seamer down the middle of the plate over the fence in left for his fourth homer of the season.
The lead didn’t last long, however, as Garcia answered by crushing a full-count slider from Kuhl 402 feet out to center for another solo home run.
