Ben Gamel homer caps 4-run 7th in Pirates’ comeback win vs. Brewers

Brandon Woodruff had just about a perfect half game Saturday.

Duane Underwood Jr.’s effort in wiggling out of a late-inning jam? So perfect it preserved an unlikely Pittsburgh Pirates win.

Ben Gamel’s two-run homer provided the deciding runs in a 4-3 victory at the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates’ first win in their past six games at American Family Field.

Shut out through six innings, the struggling Pirates offense scored four runs in the seventh off Woodruff and Brad Boxberger. What happened in the bottom of the inning after the first two men reached via a weakly struck double and single arguably was more improbable.

“I stayed with my approach, stayed with what I know. … I really didn’t get rattled,” Underwood said. “Me and (catcher Jason) Delay had a good gameplan going in, and I just stuck with it.”

Facing the middle of the order of a Milwaukee offense that is one of the most potent in the National League, Underwood induced strikeouts of Andrew McCutchen and Luis Urias around a weak grounder to first from Kolten Wong that Yoshi Tsutsugo deftly turned into a fielder’s choice by throwing out Wily Adames at the plate.

“It was really impressive,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said.

“You get put in that spot after you get the lead in the top of the inning, and he comes right back and is able to execute pitches and get us out of the inning.”

Wil Crowe and David Bednar each worked a perfect inning to close it out, with Bednar earning his 15th save.

The Pirates had lost three of their previous four and scored 13 runs over the 6 ½-plus games before their seventh-inning outburst. They’d lost 21 of their previous 26 games in Milwaukee and entered that decisive inning with only one hit over six innings against Woodruff, who retired the first 13 Pirates batters of the game.

“(Pirates batters) did a nice job of not getting away from their approach,” Shelton said.

“The thing I probably like most about this group is they will try to persevere.”

A fifth-inning, one-out double by Tsutsugo turned the tide against Woodruff, whose three previous starts against the Pirates this season ended with Brewers wins. Seven of the final 12 Woodruff faced Saturday reached base, including three hits on three pitches to begin the seventh.

The third of those hits, Oneil Cruz’s bloop double, drove in Tsutsugo and compelled Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell to lift Woodruff (who was fifth in last year’s NL Cy Young balloting) to bring in Boxberger, the veteran right-hander who’d limited hitters to an imposing .198/.283/.315 slash line this season.

Shelton called on his best player, Bryan Reynolds, to pinch hit. Given the day out of the lineup in part because he is 1 for 14 lifetime against Woodruff, Reynolds worked an eight-pitch at-bat, and a 3-2 Boxberger offering was low and outside … but called a strike anyway by home-plate umpire Roberto Ortiz, even as Reynolds began jogging to first.

Shelton would get ejected for arguing the call. But the Pirates’ rally continued as acting manager Don Kelly watched. Kevin Newman scored after the Brewers botched pinch-hitter Josh VanMeter’s shallow pop to left that was caught by Christian Yelich but mishandled by Boxberger after Yelich threw it back into the infield.

Perhaps that rattled Boxberger, who missed badly on his first two pitches to the next batter, Gamel. But Gamel was ready for the next pitch, a belt-high, 94-mph four-seam fastball that he swatted 397 feet to left-center for his fourth home run of the season.

The late-game storylines — which also included Ortiz ejecting former NL MVP Yelich — masked an ordinary start by the Pirates’ Zach Thompson: two runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Among his missteps was Urias’ 10th home run, in the second inning, off a high cutter.

“(Saturday’s win) just shows the we battle around here to win every single day to compete,” Thompson said. “Just glad we were able to pull this one out.”

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