By Paul Zeise
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pirates had face Milwaukee starter Kyle Lohse twice before they saw him Friday night and both times Lohse stifled their bats and came away with wins.
But this third time against Lohse was clearly a charm for the Pirates bats.
That’s because this time the Pirates used a barrage of hits, walks, runs, doubles, homers – name it and the Pirates probably did it at the plate – to crush the Brewers, 15-5, in front of a crowd of 35,544 at PNC Park in the opener of a pivotal three-game series.
The win pulled the Pirates (29-31) to within six games of the National League Central Division-leading Brewers (36-26).
It was the first loss Lohse (7-2) has sustained since he lost to Atlanta on opening day and it breaks his seven-game winning streak as he fell to 11-3 lifetime against the Pirates and 6-2 at PNC Park.
The Pirates had two players – Andrew McCutchen and Jordy Mercer – homer off of Lohse and by the time they chased him out of the game in the sixth inning they had touched him up for nine hits and eight runs (all earned).
Lohse, who threw 60 of his 95 pitches for strikes, then gave way to Tyler Thornburg and all he did was extend the Pirates batting practice as they cracked him for five runs (all earned) on three hits and four walks in one inning’s work.
The Pirates had a total of 16 hits and were led by catcher Russell Martin, who was 3-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs scored while shortstop Jordy Mercer, centerfielder Andrew McCutchen and leftfielder Jose Tabata, each had two hits and two RBIs.
Tabata, incidentally, was given the start over Starling Marte – his fourth game in a row on the bench – because he has had a lot of success against Lohse traditionally and Friday he did it again as he was 2-of-4, drove in two runs and scored one as well.
Meanwhile, the Pirates starter, Brandon Cumpton got his first win of the season and improved to 1-2 even though he was shaky at times and lasted only 5 1/3 innings.
Cumpton gave up three runs (all earned) on eight hits and walked two but one major difference between him and Lohse was that he was able to pitch out of a few jams and avoid the big inning.
And it was an important start for Cumpton to get back on track, at least to some degree, because his last start was a rough one as he lasted only 3 2/3 innings against the Dodgers on May 31st.
Cumpton gave up 11 hits and 11 runs (10 earned) to the Dodgers that day and the Pirates lost the game 12-2 and thus Friday he was looking to rebound in a big way as Hurdle said it is important for any young pitcher to learn to follow a bad start with a good one.
In fact, Hurdle specifically said he wanted to see how the inexperienced Cumpton, who is still auditioning for a regular spot in the rotation, would respond Friday and said it would be a good test of his ability to bounce back at this stage of his career.
“We are going to find a lot about this young man tonight,” Hurdle said in his pregame talk with members of the media. “It is not about guts, it is about getting knocked down and getting back up."
Cumpton did a very good job of getting back up after that disaster against the Dodgers and he also did a nice job of getting back up after a rough 4th inning as he sent the Brewers down in order in the 5th.
The Pirates rallied in the top of the first inning and not surprisingly it was Josh Harrison in the middle of the rally as he led off with an infield single then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Kyle Lohse.
Harrison scored on a double by McCutchen and the Pirates had a 1-0 lead.
Martin then hit a two-out single that scored McCutchen and the Pirates led 2-0 after one inning.
McCutchen took care of the heavy lifting himself in the bottom of the third inning when he hit a solo home run to left to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead.
The Brewers, who had been held in check by Cumpton through three innings, finally put together a rally in the fourth inning.
Jonathan Lucroy singled and Carlos Gomez hit a double off the centerfield wall to set the Brewers up with runners on second and third and one out.
Aramis Ramirez then hit a blooping single to short right field off the glove of Pirates second baseman Neil Walker and that enabled Lucroy to score the Brewers first run.
Khris Davis then hit a sacrifice fly to rightfield that drove in Gomez and the Brewers were within 3-2 and the game remained that way until the bottom of the fifth when the Pirates bats got rolling again.
Mercer, who has been one of the Pirates hottest bats of late, led off that inning with a homer.
Cumpton then walked, advanced to second on a groundout by Harrison and scored on a single by Neil Walker and the Pirates pushed their lead to 5-2.
The Brewers, who did have 11 hits, got one run back in the top of the 6th inning and chased Cumpton from the game but Justin Wilson came in to relieve him and shut the Brewers rally down by getting Scooter Gennett to foul out and then striking out Mark Reynolds to end the inning.
That would be the last time the Brewers, who trailed 5-3 at the time, would entertain the idea of a comeback as the Pirates blew the game wide open with an offensive explosion in the bottom of the 6th.
In that inning, the Pirates used six hits and four walks – the big blast being a bases-clearing double by Russell Martin – to score 8 runs and turn the game into a 13-3 laugher.
At that point it was over – though the Pirates tacked on two more - and Hurdle was able to use the final three innings to get some at bats and time in the field for most of his bench players as well as get some work for relievers Jeanmar Gomez and Casey Sadler.
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1720 and Twitter @paulzeise
First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:09 p.m.