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MLB
Clint Hurdle

Bullpen costs Pirates again in 8-4 loss to Brewers

AP

PITTSBURGH (AP) β€” Pittsburgh's bullpen was the best in baseball last season as the relievers posted a 2.67 ERA and helped the team get 98 wins.

This season, however, the Pirates have lost six of their last seven games and now have a losing record due in large part to an area once perceived as a strength. Pittsburgh's relievers allowed five runs to score after starter Jeff Locke exited Friday and the Milwaukee Brewers handed the Pirates their fourth straight loss, 8-4.

Opposing teams have scored 30 runs against the Pirates in their four-game skid. The bullpen is responsible for 20 of those and it's easy for manager Clint Hurdle to identify why the group has struggled.

"We need to execute our pitches better," Hurdle said. "We need to execute our locations better."

Recent circumstances, like Juan Nicasio's three-inning start Tuesday and needing a spot start from Ryan Vogelsong for an injured Francisco Liriano, haven't helped the bullpen's workload. As a result, Hurdle's needed to go to the bullpen when he's had to and not when he wants.

After Friday, the Pirates bullpen owns an unsightly 5.41 ERA over 41 innings.

"You're just not getting the results you want and you think you can get," Hurdle said. "So you're going to keep feeding them the ball and keep working with them, keep getting better. We've given up a lot of runs here the first part of the season."

Ryan Braun hit two long two-run home runs, both off Pirates relievers, while Jimmy Nelson took a shutout into the seventh.

Braun launched a 460-foot shot off the batter's eye in center field off Kyle Lobstein in the sixth to put the Brewers ahead 5-0. After the Pirates drew within a run, Braun hit a 415-foot shot to dead center in the eighth off Neftali Feliz for his third of the season to make it 7-4.

It was Braun's 23rd career multi-homer game.

"It was good to get those tack-on runs," Braun said. "The Pirates are one of the best teams in baseball and they are especially tough at home. You always want to get as many runs as you can against them."

Nelson (2-1) won his second straight start and improved his career record to 5-2 against the Pirates. He gave up three runs and four hits while walking four and striking out one.

Pinch-hitter Matt Joyce hit a three-run homer, his first, to chase Nelson with none out in the seventh. The Pirates cut the gap to 5-4 later in the inning on back-to-back doubles by David Freese and Starling Marte with two outs.

Locke (0-1) gave up three runs, five hits and walked seven in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out four.

Locke walked the leadoff batter in each of the first four innings and the Brewers took advantage by scoring single runs in the second, third and fourth to move in front 3-0.

"I can tell you now that same game I've pitched before but three runs weren't the result of that game," Locke said. "Somehow when I came out of the game today we were still in it. I've been on the other side of that too where the game's over."

LADY ON DECK?

Major League Baseball held Jackie Robinson Day for the 13th straight season Friday to celebrate the anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers infielder breaking the sport's color barrier in 1947. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle believes the day will come when a female will break baseball's gender barrier.

"I still believe firmly there's going to be a day where there's a female playing in the big leagues," he said. "I got that. Where it goes, I don't know. I don't believe I'll be in the dugout to see it."

DAVIES COMING UP

Brewers manager Craig Counsell said right-hander Zach Davies will be recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs to start Sunday in the finale of the three-game.

It will mark the first time Milwaukee will need a fifth starter this season and Davies will take the rotation spot that opened when Matt Garza (strained right lat) was placed on the 15-day disabled list at the end of spring training.

UP NEXT

The Brewers' Taylor Jungmann (0-1, 11.57 ERA) faces left-hander Jon Niese (1-0, 5.73) on Saturday night in the second game of the three-game series.

Jungmann was rocked for eight runs in two innings on Monday in a loss at St. Louis but went 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA in four starts against the Pirates last season as a rookie. Acquired from the New York Mets in an offseason trade, Niese notched his first win with the Pirates on Monday at Detroit when he allowed four runs in six innings.

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