MILWAUKEE — The look of the lineup didn’t exactly resemble Murderers’ Row. It actually might’ve been more reminiscent of Desolation Row, with seven players having spent time in the minor leagues this season, three who had other employers on opening day and three more with 100-plus games of MLB experience.
The nine hitters the Pirates started on Friday against the Brewers at American Family Field made a whopping $12.765 million, as all but Bryan Reynolds are on team-controlled contracts, yet it hardly mattered. Because, well, baseball.
This unlikely group of Pirates swatted four home runs and used a rare offensive explosion to even this series at a game apiece by topping the Brewers 8-4. Alfonso Rivas, Henry Davis, Josh Palacios and Reynolds all went deep, while Rivas and Reynolds finished with three hits apiece.
“It’s a process,” Davis said. “It’s easy to be focused on the controllables. Hit the ball hard. Control the strike zone. Have a competitive at-bat. Be prepared when you walk up there.
“Sometimes it feels like it’ll never work. You have to stick with it and stay committed. [Friday], we had some things go in our favor.”
The catalyst for those good things was a doozy, too.
Davis walked to the plate in the top of the first inning mired in a sizable funk — 0 for his past 25. He’s had some quality at-bats, including two loud outs Thursday, but still, nothing to show for it.
And when Davis bounced a ball up the middle, he figured that was probably it. Inning over, 0 for 26 incoming.
“I thought, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Davis said.
Not so fast. The ball actually bounced off second base, and Davis was safe, his hitless stretch over. He hugged first-base coach Tarrik Brock. The smile on Davis’ face said it all.
“That was a blessing,” Davis said. “There’s no other way to describe it. That was a blessing.”
It didn’t take long for whatever divine intervention occurred to yield some results, either. Playing in his second game for the Pirates, Rivas followed Davis’ fortuitous single with a three-run homer.
Rivas worked a full count and connected on a cutter down, the ball traveling 403 feet to left center and barely clearing the fence.
“I just tried to get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” Rivas said. “Luckily, it went out.”
A night after amassing just one run, the Pirates’ more aggressive approach against Brewers starter Colin Rea worked. And it came with a reconfigured lineup that included a bunch of rookies.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, with the Pirates trying to take it slow with his back, sat. So did Andrew McCutchen. Palacios bumped up to the leadoff spot, and Rivas, who led off Thursday, bumped down to the No. 5 spot.
The Pirates had Alika Williams and Vinny Capra hitting eighth and ninth, two hitters who weren’t in the organization’s plans — not to mention the organization — during spring training. Not that any of it mattered.
Reynolds finished a triple shy of the cycle, Rivas a double.
“It felt good today,” Rivas said. “I haven’t had one of those days in a while. It’s good to know that it’s still in there, you know?”
After Rivas’ homer, Milwaukee scored twice in the bottom half, on a bouncer up the middle from Carlos Santana — who later homered against his former team — and right fielder Sal Frelick’s sacrifice fly, but the Pirates applied more pressure in the second.
They increased their advantage to 4-2 when Reynolds doubled into the right field corner on a first-pitch cutter located down and in.
Davis made it a 6-2 game with his fifth homer of the season two batters later. Rea actually put a sinker in a decent place, but Davis wasn’t fooled, blasting it to left-center and getting a fortuitous bounce off the fence.
“I was praying it went out,” Davis said. “It was pretty low. I think it hit the top of the wall. It’s nice. You never know.”
ON THE MOUND
Quinn Priester looked sharp going 1-2-3 in the third and notching a pair of strikeouts: shortstop Willy Adames on a changeup and right fielder Frelick swinging through a curveball.
Priester also navigated a sticky situation in the fourth. After loading the bases with a single and two walks allowed, he somehow wiggled out of trouble.
Center fielder Joey Wiemer popped out to Endy Rodriguez, and Priester got some help from his catcher and home-plate umpire Edwin Moscoso to notch a key strikeout of left fielder Christian Yelich.
“I think it’s just showing the growth of being able to manage those situations in the big leagues and trusting my stuff in those tough situations,” Priester said. “The more I’m in those situations, the better I’m going to be in them.”
Rodriguez framed a sinker that was up and out of the zone for a called third strike, setting the stage for what was a rather busy final out of the inning.
After it appeared the Pirates tagged out third baseman Brian Anderson, taking advantage of some poor Milwaukee baserunning, they smartly challenged a safe call at second base.
The Pirates were successful, second baseman Brice Turang was ruled out, and the run was taken off the scoreboard.
Yerry De Los Santos followed Priester with a scoreless frame to notch his first MLB win.
AT THE PLATE
With Pittsburgh enjoying a 6-3 lead in the sixth inning, Palacios and Reynolds smacked back-to-back homers, the ninth time this season a Pirates duo went deep in consecutive plate appearances.
Only the Atlanta Braves (13) have done that more.
Palacios went down and got a 1-2 curveball, driving it over the right-field fence. Reynolds hammered a sinker that former Pirate Bryse Wilson left up, blasting it to a similar part of the park.
The strong game continued a couple recent trends for Reynolds, who’s now hitting .330 (38 for 115) at American Family Field and sporting a .372 average (16 for 43) in his last 11 games against Milwaukee.
Reynolds’ hitting streak now stands at eight games, during which he’s batting .412 (14 for 34) with a double, three home runs, five RBIs and seven runs scored.
“Good swings for Bryan,” Shelton said. “He continues to get the barrel of the bat out front.”
QUOTABLE
“I did, yeah. I think everybody did.” — Rivas on whether he thought Wiemer robbed him of a home run.
UP NEXT
Bailey Falter will make his Pirates debut in the third game of this series. He’ll oppose Corbin Burnes, who had a 1.85 ERA in six July starts. Burnes walked 13 and struck out 47 in 39 innings last month.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: August 5, 2023, 3:16 a.m.
Updated: August 5, 2023, 2:01 p.m.