Bad Inning Costs Pirates, Quinn Priester in 4-3 Loss to Brewers

One bad inning cost Quinn Priester and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night in a 4-3 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

The National League Central-leading Brewers (24-17) scored all four of their runs in the second inning off Priester and then held on for their fourth win in the last six games. The Pirates (19-24) fell six games behind the Brewers in the division standings.

Priester (0-4) pitched six innings and allowed nine hits and two walks while striking out five. However, the Brewers did enough damage against Priester in the second inning.

Sal Frelick hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot that broke a scoreless tie. Brice Turang and Christian Yelich added RBI singles later in the inning.

The Pirates cut the lead in half on Nick Gonzales’ home run off Joe Ross (2-4) in the fourth inning. It was Gonzales’ first homer since being called up from Triple-A Indianapolis last week and was the first time the Pirates scored when Priester was in the game during his five starts this season.

Gonzalez was the last Pirates’ baserunner until Connor Joe hit a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the ninth off Trevor Magill to end the Brewers pitchers’ streak of 16 consecutive batters retired. Joe homered in his third straight game, which is a career-best.

Magill struck out Jack Suwinski to preserve the one-run lead and finish his fifth save.

Ross gave up two runs and two hits in five innings with six strikeouts and one walk. Turang and Yelich had two hits each.

The Brewers placed first baseman Rhys Hoskins on the injured list before the game with a strained right hamstring. He leads the team with nine home runs.

Up Next

The three-game series concludes at 1:10 p.m. ET with left-hander Martin Perez (1-2, 3.60) pitching for the Pirates against rookie Robert Gasser (1-0, 0.00) in the rubber game. Perez is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA in four road starts this season. Gasser made his major-league debut last Saturday and pitched six scoreless innings to beat the St. Louis Cardinals.