Brewers beat Pirates behind Brandon Woodruff's 7 shutout innings, 6-run fifth

For Andre Jackson, the first time pitching through the Milwaukee Brewers’ batting order was a breeze.

The second time was a disaster.

After Jackson pitched three perfect innings, the Brewers took advantage of his command issues by drawing five walks and used a six-run fifth inning to take a commanding lead.

Right-hander Brandon Woodruff struck out six in seven shutout innings, and the Brewers withstood a late Pirates rally for a 7-3 win Tuesday night before 9,324 at PNC Park.

“I think that’s why we’ve tried to manipulate matchups and get the best matchups possible,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I mean, (Jackson) was hitless. It’s just the walks came back to bite us.”

Trailing by seven runs, the Pirates rallied against lefty Clayton Andrews in the ninth inning. Bryan Reynolds started with a single to center, and Ke’Bryan Hayes singled to left to put two runners on base for the first time in the game. Connor Joe followed by crushing a 1-0 fastball 410 feet to left for a three-run homer.

The Brewers turned to righty Elvis Peguero, who got pinch hitter Alfonso Rivas to line out to center and Endy Rodriguez to fly out to right. After Liover Peguero singled through the left side and Joshua Palacios beat the throw on a grounder to short, Miguel Andujar grounded into a forceout to end the game.

Jackson (1-2) retired the first nine batters he faced before encountering trouble in the fourth inning. He walked Christian Yelich, William Contreras and Carlos Santana to load the bases, and Yelich scored when Mark Canha grounded into a 4-6-3 double play for a 1-0 lead.

The Brewers poured it on in the fifth, with five hits, two walks and an error while batting around the order.

“I was pretty synched up the first three innings,” Jackson said. “Got into the fourth, walked Yelich and just kind of got out of sync a little bit. I wasn’t able to get back in there.”

Sal Frelick, who went 2 for 3 with a double and a triple, drew a leadoff walk and scored when Andruw Monasterio drilled a fly ball to the North Side Notch that ricocheted off the wall and past Palacios in left for a triple. Brice Turang hit a swinging bunt for a dribbler down the third base line that Jackson couldn’t scoop, allowing Monasterio to score.

Turang went from first to third on Tyrone Taylor’s flare to right, then scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Yelich to make it 4-0. After Jackson walked Contreras on four pitches, he was pulled for Thomas Hatch.

“It didn’t look like the stuff ticked down a little bit; it’s just he wasn’t on the plate,” Shelton said. “So we’ve got to make sure we get on the plate because he was hitless, worked out of a jam because of two previous walks. But, overall, it just came down to execution of the fastball.”

Santana hit a 397-foot shot to center that Jack Suwinski lost in the lights, and the ball bounced off the wall for a double that drove in Taylor. Mark Canha followed with a line drive to left that drove in Contreras, and Santana scored on an error when Palacios bobbled the ball for a 7-0 lead. Canha was thrown out trying to go to third, but the damage was done.

The Pirates had little luck against Woodruff (4-1), reaching base four times through the first seven innings on two hits and two walks. The Pirates never advanced to second against Woodruff, who mixed his four-seam fastball, sinker and slider effectively to induce 38 of 45 swings, eight of nine whiffs and 13 of 18 called strikes.

Ji Hwan Bae hit a leadoff single in the first, only to be caught stealing second when the Brewers challenged and the call was overturned. Suwinski drew a one-out walk in the second but was forced out at second on Peguero’s grounder to third. Rodriguez singled in the fifth but was stranded. And Reynolds drew a two-out walk in the sixth, only to be left on base.

“Early on, the sinker was good. He was using it to both sides of the plate,” Shelton said. “And then, as we got through about the second or third, the offspeed stuff was pretty effective. It looked like (the slider) had a little bit different shape. It was extremely effective, just a little bit different shape.”

Pirates righty Hunter Stratton made his major league debut in the eighth, retiring the first two batters he faced before Frelick hit a ball over Suwinski’s outstretched glove and off the center field wall for a triple. Monasterio drew a full-count walk and Stratton hit Turang with a pitch to load the bases before using his cutter on three consecutive pitches to strike out Taylor and escape the jam. Stratton then had a scoreless ninth.

The Pirates finally reached second base in the eighth against left-hander Andrew Chafin, when Palacios hit a grounder that got past Santana at first base that was ruled a single and advanced on a wild pitch.

But, like Jackson’s pitching, the Pirates appeared out of sync.

“Mentally, I felt pretty sharp,” Jackson said. “Stuff felt good. But the physical and the execution wasn’t maybe synched up. Lower half, upper half, whatever. Nothing to look too deep into. Just one of those games where kinda when it rained, it poured. Couple bloops here, walks there, the triple. It was just kind of one of those days.”