PITTSBURGH -- The Brewers scored five runs in the sixth inning of Sunday's 13-6 win over the Pirates, and three came on a bizarre play.
With the bases loaded, Pirates reliever Michael Feliz walked Ryan Braun to score a run, then walked Orlando Arcia to score another. Then, with pinch-hitter Eric Thames at the plate, Feliz uncorked a wild pitch below the strike zone that somehow caromed well down the first-base line and out of the reach of catcher Elias Diaz.
Jesus Aguilar scored easily. Pirates first baseman Josh Bell picked up the ball in front of the Milwaukee dugout and threw home as Braun reached the plate, but Feliz missed the ball, allowing Arcia to come all the way around from first for one more run.
"Never seen that," Arcia said through an interpreter. "Once the wild pitch started and once I noticed that Braun was scoring, too, I figured I had to be ready to see where the throw was, in case it was a bad throw, which it happened to be."
"That's a bad baseball play," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "Whether there's confusion or lack of effort or a combination of it going on there, I'm not sure. ... I think the speed of the game challenged [Diaz] a couple different ways. And Feliz, sometimes guys get trying too hard, they lose responsibilities -- and that's not acceptable either."
Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell chalked it up to a bit of good fortune, considering the generous bounce that got the play started.
"It was a ball that looked like it got a lot of shinguard from Diaz," Counsell said. "It kicked away quite a bit. You thought two runs was possible, for sure, as far as it kicked away. The third run is obviously a surprise. We got a good bounce, basically, is what it is. We've seen balls hit off the umpire and stop right there. You catch a break with something like that."
The Pirates also ran into similar trouble earlier in the game. Nick Kingham hit Mike Moustakas with the bases loaded in the first, and Tanner Anderson's wild pitch allowed Curtis Granderson to score in the third. The Pirates walked 10 and threw a total of three wild pitches in the game.