Alexander gives Crew much-needed innings in spot start

MILWAUKEE -- Jason Alexander did his part in a spot start, and he’ll get another opportunity as the Brewers try to conjure another September surge.

Pitching in an important spot, considering Milwaukee’s place in the standings and in a packed schedule, Alexander pitched five effective innings but saw the bullpen sputter through the rest of a 4-2 loss to the Pirates on Tuesday at American Family Field, as the Brewers surpassed 100 million in all-time attendance.

Kolten Wong played the part in his first career start as the cleanup hitter by belting a two-run home run, and Alexander held the Pirates to one run on three hits in five innings with one walk and a career-high six strikeouts. He departed with a 2-1 lead and asserted his availability for future starts, should the Brewers need the 29-year-old rookie again.

And yes, they will need him again.

“I expect Jason to start the next time around,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.

The Brewers -- six games back of the Cardinals in the National League Central standings going into the final day of August and 2 1/2 games back of the Padres for the NL’s final Wild Card berth -- are not only in the middle of a stretch of 18 games in 17 days without an off-day, but they are down injured left-hander Aaron Ashby and just got right-hander Adrian Houser back from the injured list on a short pitch count.

Houser got knocked around in a start at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, so the Brewers instead picked Alexander to start in that spot against the Pirates.

It’s not the position the Brewers envisioned going into September. They were built around a deep, six-man rotation, but their starters had combined to rank 19th of 30 Major League teams in August with a 4.22 ERA before Alexander jumped back into the mix on Tuesday, and they were 24th with a 4.73 FIP and 28th with a 9.6 percent walk rate.

Alexander, however, did the job.

“He got us 15 outs, and he did it really efficiently,” Counsell said. “It was probably more outs than we expected, actually, but he had very quick innings, so we got exactly what we wanted.”

Alexander has spent the season bouncing between Triple-A Nashville and Milwaukee -- and the Brewers’ rotation and bullpen -- with solid results of late. Including his five innings on Tuesday, he posted a 2.77 ERA in August.

“I think being able to be efficient with your pitches helps the most,” he said of succeeding in a malleable role. “The lower my pitch count is, the more likely I’ll be around [for] the next game when I'm needed. That’s my plan: to get outs.”

The Brewers were unable to do much against Pirates starter Mitch Keller through six high-velocity innings, so it was a 2-1 lead before Milwaukee’s bullpen let it get away.

Matt Bush surrendered a game-tying, towering home run to Michael Chavis with two outs in the seventh inning, and Brad Boxberger walked three batters in the eighth, including Rodolfo Castro on four pitches with the bases loaded to force home the go-ahead run. In the ninth, Oneil Cruz drove in his second run of the night for critical insurance against Peter Strzelecki, who has worked his way into a prominent role.

All three of those Brewers relievers had been pitching well for much of August. Bush allowed no earned runs in seven of eight outings from Aug. 7-22, but now he's lost one-run leads on homers in two of his last three appearances: Ian Happ on Friday against the Cubs, and Chavis on Tuesday.

Boxberger had worked nine straight scoreless outings before allowing two runs without retiring a batter on Sunday against the Cubs. Strzelecki had a 1.59 ERA in seven August outings before allowing a run in each of his last two appearances including Tuesday.

Brewers relievers have surrendered 15 home runs in August. Only Cubs relievers (23) have served up more. But Boxberger’s trouble finding the strike zone was just as impactful on Tuesday.

“None of us liked the walks tonight, for sure, but we've relied on Box. We're going to have to continue to rely on him and have no problem with relying on him,” Counsell said.

Pirates right-hander Chase De Jong earned his first career save but not without some drama. Wong led off the bottom of the ninth with a double and went to third on Keston Hiura’s single to give the Brewers a shot at a second consecutive walk-off win. But Andrew McCutchen popped out, and Luis Urías bounced into a game-ending double play to snap the Brewers’ modest winning streak at three.