The Pittsburgh Pirates played a familiar face in Quinn Priester, although the Milwaukee Brewers 24-year-old right-hander hardly resembles the one who was once their top pitching prospect.

Priester has reinvented himself and returned to PNC Park with an 11-2 record, 3.28 ERA and become a standout of the starting rotation for the Brewers, who boast the best record in baseball.

“Whether he saved our season or not, I’m not sure,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before the game, “but he certainly has been at the forefront of our success.”

After giving up two runs early, Priester silenced the Pirates by retiring the final 11 batters he faced to lead the Brewers to a 5-2 win Friday night before a crowd of 14,122.

“He was throwing the ball with conviction,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “I thought our at-bats the first time through were better. It looked like he got in a rhythm as the game continued to go on.”

It was a franchise-record 11th consecutive decision for Priester (12-2), who has a 3.25 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in 26 games (21 starts) this season but is focused on helping the Brewers (87-55) reach the 100-win total.

“There’s no doubt that everybody in this clubhouse believes in me. That’s a very powerful thing,” Priester said. “They believe in me for a reason, that confidence to execute pitches — but not necessarily strike everybody out but get the ball on the ground simplified the game for me a lot. Through that simplification I’ve been able to learn a lot better.”

It was a deflating defeat for the Pirates, who started the homestand with a three-game sweep of the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. That it came against Priester only made matters worse.

Selected by the Pirates as the No. 18 overall pick of the 2019 MLB Draft, Priester was traded to the Boston Red Sox for infielder Nick Yorke at the trade deadline in July 2024. It’s a move that has yet to pay dividends for the Pirates, although Yorke was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Monday and started at second base against the Brewers.

“It’s the hard thing in the sport, when you trade a guy you like and is a big prospect for you,” Kelly said. “But we need bats, and to be able to get Yorke and add his bat to the organization is big.”

Milwaukee acquired Priester in April when its rotation endured a rash of injuries. Where Priester was 5-9 with a 6.46 ERA and 1.59 WHIP in 20 appearances (14 starts) over two seasons with the Pirates — and made only one appearance for Boston — he has been outstanding for the Brewers.

Murphy credited Milwaukee’s front office for identifying Priester and working with him. Priester has improved by increasing the usage of his sinker as his bread-and-butter pitch, replacing his changeup with a cutter and reducing his curveball that remains his putaway pitch.

“When we first got him, it was like, ‘God, he’s not quite there,’ ” Murphy said of his debut April 10 at Colorado. “Then the pitching coaches came to me and said, ‘Look, Murph, I’m telling you. There’s something here. We’ve just got to stay with this kid. Stay with him. Stay with him.’ And, man, he’s been really good.

“It wasn’t a sales job. He’s really committed to being successful. He can be his own worst critic, but he’s committed to it.”

This wasn’t the first time Priester has faced the Pirates at PNC Park. He allowed one run on six hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in a 2-1 loss May 24.

“It looks like Quinn to me,” said Nick Gonzales, who played with Priester from 2020-24. “It seems like the Quinn that I’ve seen a lot. He commanded the zone with different pitches. The cutter was new, and he looked really good with it. He’s doing really well. He’s killing it.”

And it looked like a potential repeat through the first five innings as Pirates starter Johan Oviedo didn’t allow an earned run while holding the Brewers to one hit and three walks with four strikeouts.

The Brewers’ first two batters reached base when Brice Turang hit a leadoff single, and Isaac Collins drew a full-count walk. Oviedo struck out Jackson Chourio, but William Contreras hit a grounder to third that skipped over Jared Triolo’s glove to score Turang for a 1-0 lead. It was the first of two errors for Triolo, a 2024 NL Gold Glove winner.

Spencer Horwitz doubled down the left-field line, and Bryan Reynolds drew a walk. Tommy Pham grounded into a forceout at second to put runners on the corners for Andrew McCutchen, but Andrew Vaughn made a leaping snap of his line drive to first base to end the rally.

The Pirates tied it in the second inning, when Gonzales led off with a ground-rule double and scored on Oneil Cruz’s single to right. They scored the go-ahead run in the third, when Pham roped an RBI double to the left-field corner to drive in Reynolds for a 2-1 lead.

The Brewers threatened to score in the fifth, when Caleb Durbin drew a leadoff walk, stole second base and advanced to third on Joey Ortiz’s groundout to second. Turang hit a fly ball to left for a potential sacrifice fly, but Pham made a strong throw that Triolo cut off, holding Durbin at third. Collins flied out to center to end the frame.

Carmen Mlodzinski relieved Oviedo for the sixth and gave up back-to-back singles to Contreras and Sal Frelick, then threw a wild pitch that allowed both runners to move into scoring position. Jake Bauers hit a two-out, two-run single to right field to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead. After Durbin followed with a single up the middle and Ortiz drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases, Mlodzinski got Turang to ground out to short to strand the runners.

The Brewers tacked on another run in the eighth against Yohan Ramirez. Bauers hit a leadoff single, stole second base, advanced to third on Durbin’s lineout to right and scored on Turang’s grounder to left for a 4-2 Brewers lead.

A pair of Pirates errors played a role in the Brewers stretching their lead in the ninth. Contreras singled, reached second on an error by Triolo at short and scored on a single by Vaughn that saw Gonzales make an error on his throw to first.

Kelly called the errors “uncharacteristic” of the Pirates’ defense.

“Looking at the infield, they’ve been so good, they’ve worked so hard. Just a blip on the screen, really,” Kelly said. “Not really worried about Tri and Gonzo and the infield defense. The way that they work, the way they compete — and we’ve seen it all year long — just a tough night tonight, but they’ll be back at it tomorrow.”

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