Logan Henderson and Jared Jones are two of the brighter young pitching stars in the league. Both 24 years old, each has had a lot of early success while working around injuries, and both have a bright future. Tonight, though, a struggling Brewers offense figured Jones out, and while Henderson wasn’t perfect, he limited damage and ended up matching his career-long outing with six innings and just two runs allowed. The Brewer bullpen, aided by one of their new pickups, did the rest. On the other
side of the ball, the Brewers got an extremely encouraging game from a guy they’re going to desperately need, Jackson Chourio, as the team picked up a relatively comfortable 4-2 win.
Henderson took a minute to find it at the beginning of the game and walked the leadoff hitter, Jake Mangum, on four pitches. He had no trouble after that, though, and got out of the inning by striking out Brandon Lowe, getting a near-double-play groundout from Bryan Reynolds, and striking out Esmerlyn Valdez. In the bottom of the inning, Chourio lined a 109 mph one-out single to right, and Garrett Mitchell also hit a ball hard, though his 107 mph exit velocity came on a ground ball that he just barely beat out, staying out of a double play. William Contreras flew out to center, and we were off.
Henderson worked through an easy second inning with no blemishes. The kids in Milwaukee’s order tried to put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the second; Luis Lara came back from an 1-2 count to draw a walk, and Cooper Pratt followed with ground ball to third that Jacob Gonzalez couldn’t handle for an infield hit. But David Hamilton flew out to second, and the Brewers failed to come through on their first opportunity with a runner in scoring position tonight.
Gonzalez was responsible for the game’s first run when he led off the third with an absolute rocket out to the Pittsburgh bullpen on a first-pitch, 91 mph fastball that Henderson left right over the middle. Henderson recovered to retire the side, working around a two-out single by Lowe.
The Brewers had the top of the order up in the bottom of the third, and with one out, the Brewers had a quick response when Chourio also took aim at the Pittsburgh bullpen for a 399-foot opposite-field shot. It was his first home run in exactly a month, having last done so on the Fourth of July in Phoenix. After a Mitchell strikeout, Contreras extended the inning with a single through the left side, but a Yelich groundout ended the inning. Milwaukee had fought back, though, and it was back to a tie game.
After another three-up, three-down inning for Henderson, the Brewers took their first lead of the series when Andrew Vaughn led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run to dead center, 417 feet and 107 mph off the bat, his fifth of the season. Lara worked another good at-bat before lining out to Reynolds in deep left, and Pratt followed with a good at-bat of his own in which he fought off a couple of tough pitches while behind in the count before lining a solid single to center. Hamilton then followed with a sneak-attack drag bunt on the first pitch he saw, and the Brewers had runners on first and second with one out for the top of the order.
Turang flew out pretty deeply into the left-field corner for the second out, but luckily the Brewers were apparently getting a locked-in Chourio tonight. He lined a two-strike pitch up the middle for a two-out, RBI single, his third hit of the night at at least 99.8 mph (in just the fourth inning!). Mitchell struck out on a check swing, but the Brewers were up 3-1.
Unfortunately, this time the Pirates had an immediate response. Endy Rodríguez led off the fifth with a skyscraping homer that just snuck inside the right-field foul pole that halved the Brewer lead. During Gonzalez’s ensuing at-bat, some confusion around a strike call (which the home-plate ump, James Hoye, hesitated on, and then denied a challenge on) made Pirates manager Don Kelly mad. After Gonzalez flew out to right, Kelly kept barking, got tossed, and got aggressively into Hoye’s face before leaving. Mangum singled with two outs to keep the inning going, prompting a visit from Chris Hook, but Henderson struck out Lowe to end the inning with the score 3-2 Brewers.
Jones was done after four innings, nice work by the Brewer lineup; he’d allowed eight hits, a walk, and three runs in his four innings and needed 83 pitches to do it. He was replaced by Wilber Dotel, who gave up a leadoff single to Contreras in almost the exact spot that he hit his last one, between shortstop and third base. After a Yelich strikeout, Vaughn drew a walk to put two on with one out, and Lara came through with a single past a drawn-in Gonzalez at third for an RBI single. Pratt popped out and Hamilton struck out to end the inning, but the lead was back to two runs.
After he struck out the side in the top of the sixth, Henderson was through six innings for just the second time this season and third time in his career, with an efficient 83 pitches. The three strikeouts did end his evening; though Henderson gave up a couple of longballs tonight, he did so with no one on base, and he struck out eight while allowing four hits and a walk in those six innings. Another really good outing for Henderson.
Dotel continued in the bottom of the inning and in the first pitch of the frame, Turang reached on an infield single which second baseman Nick Gonzales dove for and knocked down but couldn’t handle. Chourio nearly got around on a fastball in off the plate, but it jammed him just enough that it ended up as a flyout to center. Mitchell struck out looking for his third strikeout of the game, and Contreras—aiming for the same spot between shortstop and third—couldn’t sneak this one through, and grounded out to end the inning.
On for his Brewers debut in the top of the seventh was yesterday’s less-heralded pickup, Antonio Senzatela. He got his first guy, Gonzales, but walked the next, Rodríguez, and started Gonzalez with a couple of balls, too. But Senzatela worked back into the count with a couple of foul balls and then got out of his first inning as a Brewer with a 6-4-3 double play.
Yohan Ramírez set the Brewers down in order in the bottom of the seventh, and Abner Uribe was on in relief of Senzatela in the top of the eighth. He got off to a rough start by hitting Jared Triolo, the Pirates’ number-nine hitter, with a 1-1 pitch. Uribe struck out Mangum for the first out, but Lowe hit a line drive toward the right-field gap. Lara did well to cut it off, holding Triolo at third and Lowe to a single, but the Pirates were in business with runners on the corners and one out.
But Uribe locked in. After a visit from Hook, Uribe struck out Reynolds on three pitches (with the aid of a successful challenge by Contreras on an 0-2 pitch that was initially called a ball), and he struck out Valdez, too, this time with an unsuccessful Pirates challenge.
Pittsburgh got their first look at one of their new deadline pickups, Kirby Yates, in the bottom of the eighth. He had no trouble: Pratt started things with good contact but a fly out to center, Hamilton got under a ball and flew out to right, and Turang flew out to shallow left.
On for his first save opportunity since July 25th, Trevor Megill took most of the drama out of it. Spencer Horwitz grounded out, and things got a little scary when Gonzales hit a fly ball into the gap in right—Mitchell made the catch but nearly ran over Lara in doing so, and Mitchell was clearly annoyed that Lara didn’t get out of the way sooner. A Rodríguez pop out ended the game, with the Brewers winning 4-2.
Milwaukee only scored four runs in this game, but the offense showed a little more life today, to the tune of 11 hits and a couple of homers. Particularly encouraging was Chourio, who hit the ball hard all night and finished 3-for-4 with a solo home run and a clutch RBI single. Vaughn added the Brewers’ other homer, while Pratt and Contreras both hit a pair of singles. Every Brewer in the lineup had at least one hit except for Mitchell and Yelich, while five Brewers (Chourio, Vaughn, Pratt, Contreras, and Lara) reached base at least twice.
On the other side, Henderson kept rolling and the Brewer bullpen made things boring down the stretch. If anything, this felt like a game that Milwaukee should’ve won by more—they were far better offensively, even if the end result was close. It was a nice bounce back victory after the disappointing loss last night and an early deficit tonight.
The series continues tomorrow with a notable pitching matchup. On the mound for the Pirates is ace Paul Skenes, while for the Brewers, Kyle Harrison is scheduled to make his return after a nearly month-long absence. That game is at 6:40 p.m.; we’ll see you then.
