The Pirates mounted two comebacks against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park Sunday afternoon, but both came up short as the Brewers prevailed, 9-6.
The Pirates looked all but dead after a couple of innings, as Kevin Correia allowed the first two Brewers batters of the game to reach base, then gave up a three-run homer to Ryan Braun. Casey McGehee then tacked on a solo homer of his own, and the Pirates were down 4-0 against the tough opposing starter Zack Greinke. Milwaukee also tacked on runs in the second and third.
Greinke lived up to his billing through the first four innings, holding the Pirates hitless, but an epic 12-pitch at-bat by Neil Walker to start the fifth led to a home run and a huge inning for the Pirates, who added extra-base hits by Chris Snyder, Ronny Cedeno, Steve Pearce, and Andrew McCutchen and closed the lead to 6-5.
Reliever Chris Resop gave up a two-run homer to Jonathan Lucroy in the bottom of the inning, however, and Casey McGehee scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to make it 9-5 Brewers.
In the ninth, the Pirates mounted another comeback, this time against Brewers closer John Axford. The Pirates began the inning with three straight singles and brought the go-ahead run to the plate with one out, but Jose Tabata's double-play grounder ended it with the Brewers winning 9-6.
For more on the game, check out Bucs Dugout.