Peter Zuzga, Associated Press The Brewers' Rickie Weeks steals second base in front of the Pirates' Jose Castillo in the seventh inning yesterday in Milwaukee. Click photo for larger image.

MILWAUKEE -- It's a play the Pirates -- and 29 other major-league teams -- work on incessantly in spring training.

Opposing runners on first and second. No outs. The bunt is in order. Pitcher fields the bunt and gets the runner going from second at third base.

Simple.

Usually.

But not yesterday.

Pitcher Salomon Torres' failure to execute that play properly cost the Pirates in a 5-2 loss to Milwaukee in the season opener.

"I kicked myself in the butt because we anticipated the play and I knew exactly where I needed to be," Torres said. "I was there. But I tried to make the out before I got the ball. I was too quick."

Torres, a veteran right-hander who normally can be counted on to pitch a clean inning, had extricated the Pirates from the sixth inning by getting two outs to protect a slender 2-1 lead for them and starter Oliver Perez.

But with a 2-1 lead, manager Jim Tracy noted, "your breathing room is very minimal."

That breathing room became downright miniscule when Torres walked right-handed batting Rickie Weeks and Bill Hall to begin the Milwaukee seventh.

"Maybe I was nibbling too much at the plate," Torres said. "I was maybe rushing a little bit. I wasn't really myself as far as concentrating on making my pitches.

"That's why this game is so special. If everybody was 100 percent into what they needed to do and concentrating 100 percent, it would be a boring game."

This game soon would become anything but boring, which Torres sensed.

"Every time you walk a guy, he scores," he said.

Still, the Pirates had a great opportunity to prevent that.

Damian Miller promptly bunted in front of the plate and just to the right of the mound. Torres fielded the ball quickly -- but too quickly as things played out. The ball rolled from his glove, eliminating the excellent chance the Pirates had to catch quick Rickie Weeks at third.

Torres had to settle for the out at first base.

"I know for a fact that if [Torres] fields it cleanly, we have a force out at third base," Tracy said. "There's no doubt in my mind he was going to get the guy at third base."

"I wouldn't say it's an easy out, but we had him," third baseman Joe Randa said. "We talked about it on the mound that the grass is slow here, so hop off and he did. He got there. He was just a little too quick."

"I watched the video," Torres said. "I was turning [to throw] before I got the ball. It was too easy of a play for me not to make. I was really mad at myself because of that situation, but you know, it's part of the game. Next time I have to make sure I get the ball before I throw to third."

Getting the out at third base would have kept the double play in order with a pinch-hitter due up.

"Definitely," Torres said. "Double play. You're out of the inning. They say this is a game of inches. If I would have stayed with the ball just a second longer and gotten the guy at third, it would have been a different story."

But the story that was written at Miller Park yesterday had pinch-hitter Jeff Cirillo facing left-hander Damaso Marte, and Cirillo scripted a happy ending for Brewers fans by rolling a single through the left side, scoring Weeks and Hall.

"He didn't hit the ball well at all," Tracy said. "He just hit it in a wonderful spot."

It did not help that rookie Matt Capps, who did get a double play ball to end that messy seventh inning, yielded a two-run home run to Carlos Lee in the eighth inning. Lee's shot over the left-center field wall, which followed a Geoff Jenkins single, ended an 11-pitch at-bat. Usually, the more pitches a hitter sees from a pitcher in an at-bat the worse the outcome for the pitcher.

"It's never a good thing," Capps said. "I threw everything but the kitchen sink to him. He hit a fastball on the outer part of the plate. It was a fairly decent pitch, but he hit it. He hit it a country mile, too.

"I battled him. What can you do? You have to tip your hat to [hitters] every now and then. He beat me [yesterday]."

"Carlos Lee put a very good at-bat on Matt Capps," Tracy said. "Those extra couple runs there were obviously deflating."

Thing was, Capps wouldn't have been in the game had Torres been able to get through the seventh inning unscathed.

Tracy would have used veteran right-hander Roberto Hernandez for the eighth inning, then turned the decision over to closer Mike Gonzalez in the ninth.

"It was lined up," Tracy said. "We were right where I wanted to be."

But you know what they say about best laid plans.

"That's why whoever makes the most mental mistakes or doesn't do the things they need to do, that's the team that's going to lose," Torres said. "So next time? Concentrate a little bit more."