Pirates fall 5 games behind Brewers after home loss

Jordan Lyles was one-on-one with 27 Milwaukee Brewers batters Sunday at PNC Park, and he handled 18 of them without a problem.

But teams are judged on victories and defeats, and that’s why his first outing since leaving the game in Cincinnati last Tuesday with a hamstring strain wasn’t good enough.

The Pittsburgh Pirates batters were of little service, and Lyles allowed every Milwaukee run in a 4-2 loss before a crowd of 19,442.

He pitched six innings, giving the bullpen a break after eight Pirates threw 276 pitches Saturday in a 13-inning defeat.

Still, Lyles’ performance didn’t sit well with him.

“I didn’t give enough. I was going in thinking more than six,” he said. “We both knew, obviously, that we both needed to get deep. Their starter (Zach Davies, 6-0, 2.20 ERA) was better than I was today. That’s the whole story.”

Lyles threw 109 pitches while allowing eight hits and a walk, but two breaking balls that didn’t fool Eric Thames made the difference.

He homered one in the third inning with a runner on base and turned the other into an RBI double.

“Two breaking balls I wish I could have back,” Lyles said, noting the hamstring never was an issue Sunday.

“I wish they were a little bit lower. I just didn’t make quality pitches with one of my better pitches.”

The bullpen kept the game close over the final three innings. Francisco Liriano, Kyle Crick and Richard Rodriguez allowed one runner while striking out five batters.

Crick struck out the side in the eighth, and Rodriguez, who had been struggling, threw 11 strikes among his 14 pitches.

The Pirates managed eight hits, but they turned leadoff doubles by Adam Frazier, Josh Bell and Colin Moran in the third, sixth and ninth innings into only one run. They scored but traded outs to do it on Kevin Newman’s sacrifice fly in the third and Bell’s groundout in the fourth.

In the ninth, pinch hitter Gregory Polanco followed Moran and reached base on the second catcher’s interference call against the Brewers’ Manny Pina in three innings.

Down two, Hurdle called for Frazier to bunt, but relief pitcher Alex Claudio jumped off the mound to field the ball, turned and fired to second to retire Polanco.

“The last place I thought the throw would go was to second,” Hurdle said. “It went to second, they got an out and it defeated the purpose of the bunt.”

Elias Diaz struck out, and Newman grounded into a force play, ending the game and his 11-game hitting streak. The Pirates (28-30) lost for the 10th time in the past 14 games and are five games behind the first-place Brewers in the National League Central.