PITTSBURGH -- Rough. 

The Pirates were blown out by the Brewers, 19-2, on Friday at PNC Park. The loss is their second-largest margin of defeat this season, and the seventh time that  Pittsburgh has lost by at least nine runs. 

“We have to flush this one,” said manager Derek Shelton. “Obviously, we didn’t pitch well, and the game got a little sloppy in the eighth. Then we faced Corbin Burnes, who’s really good. So, yeah. Just flush it, move on and come back out tomorrow.”

The Brewers’ first punch came in the second inning with a seven-run barrage, which resulted in Roansy Contreras exiting the ballgame before completing the frame.

Mother Nature had its part to play in the tone-setting inning. With no outs and Andrew McCutchen on first, Kolten Wong hit a line drive towards center field. Bryan Reynolds immediately raised his glove to shield his eyes, but the sun’s rays were too strong. Wong’s line drive, which had a 95 percent catch probability, turned into a double, and McCutchen easily scored from first.

The inning went downhill from there.

Luis Urías, the next batter, hit a two-run shot. Two batters later, Keston Hiura tacked on a solo home run. The Brewers put runners on second and third with two outs, but after getting ahead of Rowdy Tellez, Contreras was one pitch away from escaping the inning without further damage. Instead, Tellez provided the dagger, a three-run home run that sent Shelton out to retrieve his rookie. All three home runs came on fastballs.

Contreras’s numbers, as one might imagine, took a hit. His ERA inflated from 2.76 to 4.09. His FIP jumped from 4.17 to 5.11. As badly as the start went, though, Contreras is taking it as an opportunity to learn.

“After every outing, every opportunity I get to pitch, I try to learn something from it, whether it’s a good outing or whether it’s a bad outing like tonight’s. I always try to grasp something from it,” Contreras said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “These are things that happen. I was trying to give everything that I had out there. Whenever I get home, I’m going to be able to review some tape and try to get whatever I can out of it, to be able to grow.”

The middle innings were relatively uneventful, save for Bligh Madris breaking up Burnes’ no-hit bid in the bottom of the sixth inning with a double, but Milwaukee had more in store, following up its seven-run second inning with an eight-run eighth inning.

All eight runs (seven earned) in that frame were charged to Cam Vieaux, who labored through a 56-pitch inning, the most by any Pirates pitcher since those stats began being tracked in 1988. Vieaux didn’t record his first out until his 48th pitch. Shelton explained the decision to leave in Vieaux following the game.

“It was either Cam or go to a position player,” Shelton said. “We didn’t catch a pop-up. We didn’t cover first on a ground ball. We had a couple things. The over-swing and the ball that went underneath Hoy [Park]’s glove. Once he got the first out, it was just hitter by hitter. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the first out until about pitch 50. Then, he got the next three in about three or four pitches. It was one of those situations where we were just trying to save our bullpen going into tomorrow. Unfortunately, we played a sloppy inning on top of lack of execution on the mound.”

Shelton further added that he would have gone to a position player earlier if Vieaux had gotten to the 50-pitch mark without recording an out.