Bucs shrug off miscues, rally to down Crew

PITTSBURGH -- Even with crowd noise pumped in, you can hear a lot more than usual inside an empty ballpark. The sounds told a story in the eighth inning Tuesday night at PNC Park.

First there was the crack of Adam Frazier's bat sending a Bobby Wahl fastball toward the Clemente Wall at 100 mph. Then, immediately, came a loud roar from the third-base side, pure elation from the Pirates dugout. Just after the ball thudded off the Allegheny Health Network tarp stretched over a section of seats in right field, fireworks boomed over PNC Park.

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The Pirates celebrated again not long after Frazier’s tiebreaking home run, showering Geoff Hartlieb (first Major League win) and Nick Burdi (first save) in beer and whatever else they could find inside the clubhouse after the two relievers sealed their 8-6 win over the Brewers.

"That's why you take this job, fun nights like that. Really proud of our group,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Resilient in coming back. I think that's the one thing our fans are going to learn about this group is they don't give up. They haven't.”

And after the Pirates won a wild, back-and-forth game Tuesday night, less than 24 hours after a frustrating loss in extra innings, could you blame them for letting loose a little?

"This is a big win for us. Last night was tough, but that's baseball,” left fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “We bounced back well and put together a good, solid game. Frazier picked us up there. Good momentum swing for us."

There were plenty of momentum swings just within this game.

Veteran left-hander Derek Holland pitched well in his Pirates debut, breezing through the Brewers lineup twice before running into trouble the third time through. Lorenzo Cain walked with one out in the sixth, then Keston Hiura hit a game-tying homer over the notch in left-center field. But that was essentially Holland’s only mistake, as he gave Pittsburgh 5 2/3 solid innings, and his shutdown work early on helped set the tone after a late bullpen lapse on Monday night.

“The one thing I can really say about these guys, and you can see it on the field, too: We don’t ever give up. We continue to fight,” Holland said. “That’s what I love about this team.”

But the Pirates’ beleaguered bullpen reared its head in the seventh inning. After Chris Stratton walked the first two batters, left-hander Miguel Del Pozo -- fresh off the shuttle from Pittsburgh’s alternate training site -- walked two batters, then gave up a two-run double to Orlando Arcia before walking another batter.

At that point, the Pirates had a 4.7 percent chance of winning, according to FanGraphs. When Hartlieb took the mound in favor of Del Pozo, though, things started to swing back in the Pirates’ favor.

Hiura, the first batter Hartlieb faced, hit a line drive to center field that Guillermo Heredia snagged. With Arcia trying to tag up from second while Manny Piña scored on the sacrifice fly, Heredia made a quick throw to third baseman Phillip Evans, who caught the ball on an awkward bounce and tumbled into Arcia to finish the double play. Hartlieb struck out Christian Yelich to end the inning.

The Brewers’ bullpen wasn’t exactly sharp in the seventh, either, cracking the door open for a Pirates rally. Left-hander Brent Suter walked Kevin Newman to force in a run, then first baseman Justin Smoak threw a potential double-play grounder from Colin Moran into left field to bring home two more runs. After Reynolds struck out swinging, Evans lined a game-tying double to center.

“We’ve all been together for a while now, so we kind of know we’re never out of anything,” Frazier said. “So we’re always going to fight and give ourselves a chance at the end.”

With the bullpen decimated by injuries and other absences, Hartlieb returned to pitch the eighth. Ryan Braun wound up reaching second on a bunt, then moved to third on an Eric Sogard single. Avisaíl García then hit a high fly ball to left, and Braun took off as soon as it landed in Reynolds’ glove. But Reynolds, who vowed to improve defensively this season, fired a one-hop strike to catcher John Ryan Murphy, who tagged out Braun to keep a run off the board.

Brewers manager Craig Counsell called Reynolds’ throw “perfect,” the only one that would have gotten the job done. The reserved Reynolds agreed it was “one of my better ones up here.”

Hartlieb got Smoak to ground out, keeping the game tied at 6. Cole Tucker led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to left-center, then after Murphy’s sacrifice bunt, Frazier filled PNC Park with noise by driving his first home run of the season out to right.

“First ball I’ve driven all year, so I kind of forgot what it felt like,” Frazier said. “It felt pretty good.”

By the time Frazier’s homer landed, Burdi was already warming up in Pittsburgh’s bullpen. The Pirates are without closer Keone Kela, and on Tuesday they put former setup man Kyle Crick on the 10-day injured list. That creates an opportunity for Burdi, the hard-throwing right-hander with a closer’s arsenal and mentality but practically no Major League experience.

But Burdi offered a glimpse of his upside finishing the Pirates’ first win on Sunday and did so again on Tuesday. After a leadoff walk, Burdi struck out Ben Gamel with a 97 mph fastball and ramped it up to 98 mph when Cain grounded into a game-ending double play.

“These kind of moments, it’s why we play. It’s exciting. It’s why we’re here,” Burdi said. “It’s one of those where you take the ball, get the job done and you get to do stuff like this -- get to celebrate in the clubhouse and enjoy the night.”