Brewers rip 3 homers off Andrew Heaney to top Pirates, even series

Andrew Heaney had ample reason to be displeased with his last time on the hill, when he allowed a season-high seven earned runs June 19 in Detroit.

But, as the 34-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates veteran noted after that game, it was far from his first rodeo in navigating through a bad start.

Heaney looked to redeem himself Tuesday in Milwaukee, with the Pirates aiming to secure a series win against the Brewers at American Family Field.

Instead, it was another disappointing start for Heaney as he allowed three home runs in a 9-3 Pirates defeat.

Heaney (3-7, 4.48 ERA) lasted just four innings and was removed with no outs in the fifth with two men on base.

“Fastball command wasn’t there and (Milwaukee) wasn’t chasing the off-speed down in the zone,” manager Don Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “I think when the fastball isn’t there and you struggle getting ahead, you’re not going to get as many chases. That’s what it looked like to me.”

For the second straight start, he allowed seven runs, on seven hits, walking three with three strikeouts.

Brewers starter Freddy Peralta (8-4, 2.90) was largely effective over five innings but allowed all three of his runs on a homer in the sixth by Nick Gonzales, ending his outing.

Milwaukee got on the board in the third, taking a 2-0 lead on a home run by Joey Ortiz, which scored Caleb Durbin, who singled.

In the fourth, Heaney’s start unraveled as he allowed a three-run homer to Durbin after Brice Turang singled and Isaac Collins walked.

Then Ortiz took him deep again for a solo shot, creating a 6-0 lead for the Brewers.

Heaney departed in the fifth after allowing a leadoff single to Jackson Chourio and walking Christian Yelich.

“Heaney’s a veteran,” Kelly said. “He’ll figure it out and he’ll get that fastball command back.”

Reliever Darrell Michael-Hicks, making his Pirates debut the same day he was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis, got a clutch double play but allowed Chourio to score from third on a wild pitch.

That run was charged to Heaney and put the Brewers up 7-0.

The Pirates (32-49) crafted an early golden scoring opportunity for themselves in the top of the second, loading the bases with no outs against Peralta after Spencer Horwitz, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Adam Frazier singled.

But Henry Davis grounded out, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa struck out and Brewers left fielder Isaac Collins made a sliding grab on an Oneil Cruz fly ball to end the threat.

It wasn’t until the sixth when the Pirates got another good chance against Peralta as Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds singled.

To the plate then came the red-hot Gonzales, fresh off a 5-for-5 night Monday in Milwaukee.

Gonzales worked a full count and crushed a curveball to left-center field, making the score 7-3 Milwaukee and leading to Peralta’s exit.

Darrell-Hicks stayed on for the sixth, as well, delivering a scoreless frame before Carmen Mlodzinski took over in the seventh.

Following Peralta’s exit, the Pirates failed to manufacture much offense against Brewers reliever Rob Zastryzny and Jared Koenig.

In the eighth, the Pirates came up empty against Grant Anderson, going down in order.

Cruz was removed from the game in the bottom of the eighth, with Alexander Canario taking over in center field.

He went 0 for 4 with a strikeout in the loss, hitting into a double play in the seventh on which he did not appear to make maximum effort to beat out a throw from Ortiz.

Kelly revealed postgame that Cruz was benched for the lack of hustle.

“Just the energy and effort going down the line,” Kelly said. “He knows the expectation going forward.”

Cruz, through Pirates assistant coach and translator Stephen Morales, said he thought there were two outs on the play.

“(Kelly) had all the rights to do what he did and I backed him up on that,” he said.

In part because of an error by Gonzales and mental lapse by Mlodzinski, who failed to cover first base on a double play ball, Milwaukee scored two runs in the eighth, padding the lead to 9-3.

Milwaukee’s Abner Uribe struck out the side in the ninth.