Brewers hammer Bubba Chandler in 1st MLB start to sweep series against Pirates

When Bubba Chandler made his major-league debut out of the bullpen, it raised a question: Why wasn’t the game’s top pitching prospect starting instead of coming on in relief?

Chandler’s first MLB start answered that.

Facing the team with the best record in baseball — and going opposite the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season opener — Chandler got rocked for nine runs on nine hits and three walks in 2²⁄₃ innings as the Milwaukee Brewers barreled their way to a 10-2 win Sunday afternoon before 12,443 at PNC Park.

“All you can do is flush it,” Chandler said. “I’m going to go back and watch the game, watch more of my body and what I was doing, what actually happened. I’m going to learn from it. I’m going to get better. I just put our team in a horrible situation today from the get-go, and it sucks.”

The NL Central-leading Brewers (89-55) had 14 hits and seven walks to complete a three-game series sweep of the Pirates (64-80), who began the six-game homestand with a three-game sweep of the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers but ended it with a resounding thud.

It was the 10th time this season an opponent scored double-digit runs against the Pirates, and the third time the Brewers have done so. They beat the Pirates by scores of 14-0 and 12-5 on Aug. 12-13 in Milwaukee.

Chandler also faced a tall order in his counterpart, Brewers 6-foot-7 rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski (5-2). The 23-year-old All-Star had eight strikeouts and allowed one run on three hits and two walks. He threw his fastball on 60 of his 108 pitches, averaging 99 mph and topping 100 11 times with a maximum of 101.2.

Through his first three outings, the 22-year-old Chandler had shown why he was such a highly regarded prospect. His fastball flirted with triple digits, and his changeup proved to be a strong secondary pitch. He earned a scoreless four-inning save in his debut and the win in each of his next two appearances, allowing a total of three runs on nine hits and one walk with nine strikeouts in a combined 12 innings.

Against the Brewers, Chandler showed why the Pirates were slow to pull the trigger on his promotion and left him to spend much of the summer at Triple-A Indianapolis. He gave up hits to four of the first five batters he faced and walked the other. Of the 19 batters he faced, 14 reached base. Chandler threw 43 of his 68 pitches for strikes, recording three strikeouts, but got only one whiff on 15 swings against his fastball.

“You don’t want your first start going like that,” Chandler said. “You don’t want any game going like that. Hate that I screwed up the bullpen. Try to get out there next week and learn from it.”

Chandler (2-1) got off to a rocky start when Brice Turang hit his second pitch for a single through short, and Isaac Collins followed with a single to left. After Chandler got ahead in the count against William Contreras, he threw four consecutive balls for a walk to load the bases.

Jake Bauers doubled down the right-field line to drive in two runs, and Andrew Vaughn hit a flare to right for an RBI single and 4-0 lead. Chandler got Caleb Durbin to ground into a 4-6-3 double play and Blake Perkins to fly out to center to end the frame.

Danny Jansen led off the second with a double to right, advanced to third on a Joey Ortiz single and scored on a wild pitch by Chandler to give the Brewers a 5-0 lead.

“The first two base hits with the fastball. They got on, and it seemed like he got away from it a little bit. The command wasn’t there at all. Just got off track a little bit,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “I thought the second inning was a little better, then he went back to it in the third. You’ve got a tough offense, a grinding offense. They put up a lot of runs for a reason. It’s just a tough lineup to navigate.”

The Pirates pushed across a run in the bottom of the second, when Andrew McCutchen hit a leadoff double and scored on a Liover Peguero single that dropped in left to cut it to 5-1.

But Chandler gave up four more runs in the third: on an RBI double by Perkins, a fielder’s choice to score Vaughn from third and a two-run single by Turang for a 9-1 Brewers lead. That was it for Chandler, who was replaced by Colin Holderman with two outs.

Misiorowski struck out the side in the fourth by getting McCutchen swinging at a 98.4 mph fastball, Oneil Cruz looking at a curveball and Joey Bart watching a 101.2 mph heater for a called third strike. Misiorowski retired the final 13 batters he faced.

“We got some action going, then ran the pitch count up a little bit,” Kelly said. “Then he got in a groove and really started locating that heater away, and the slider off of it made it really tough.”

The Brewers padded their lead against Yohan Ramirez in the seventh. Bauers, who went 6 for 12 with six RBIs and five runs in the series, hit a leadoff single and scored on a bases-loaded groundout to third by Jansen to make it 10-1.

The Pirates finally scored again when Joel Payamps replaced Misiorowski in the eighth. Ji Hwan Bae, recalled from Indianapolis on Sunday, drew a one-out walk and had a chance to show off his speed by scoring from first on pinch hitter Cam Devanney’s double to left.

Kelly said he considers Chandler a starting pitcher and expects him to get another turn in the rotation, though he wouldn’t rule out more work as a bulk reliever. Kelly believes Chandler will learn from his first loss.

“I know the competitor that Bubba is,” Kelly said. “He’s going to be back to the drawing board with (pitching coach) Oscar (Marin) and the pitching group, refining some things. He’ll be ready to go next time he’s out there.”