PITTSBURGH -- One of the beauties of baseball’s long history is that it almost always could be worse. Take the case of Jhoulys Chacin, the veteran right-hander who is a dozen starts deep in his second season with the Brewers and struggling to recapture the stability of his first.

In the third inning of Friday’s 9-4 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park, Chacin issued four walks in a five-batter span. Three of them came with the bases loaded, forcing in a run. The first of the run-scoring walks went to Colin Moran on four pitches. The two others came with two outs. The last went to the opposing pitcher, Chris Archer, on five pitches after Chacin again fell behind, 3-0, in the count. Some of those pitches were close, but Chacin didn’t complain. He knew he hadn’t thrown enough strikes to earn the benefit of the doubt.

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“This has never happened to me before, walking guys with the bases loaded like that,” said Chacin. “I’ve been here long enough in this game, so I need to start doing a better job if I want to keep pitching.”

It turned into a six-run outburst for the Pirates and a 7-1 lead, too much for the Brewers to overcome -- though Keston Hiura gave it a try by smashing a 110.5 mph, three-run home run in the next half-inning to keep the game close. All six runs in Pittsburgh’s big inning were charged to Chacin, Milwaukee’s Opening Day starter, whose ERA (5.74) and FIP (5.75) simultaneously say that this is trending toward the worst of his 11 Major League seasons, and that the problem is not bad luck or the defense behind him.

It should go without saying that three run-scoring walks in an inning is not good. Jeff Suppan once did it, in the fourth inning of a loss to the Cubs on April 12, 2009. But only 25 times in 50 years has a Brewers pitcher walked home three-plus runs in an entire season. Chacin now has four in his first 58 innings of 2019, one shy of a dubious single-season franchise record. Chuck Crim (1987), Manny Parra (2009) and Suppan (2009) each endured seasons in which they walked home five runs.

It could have been worse. In Suppan’s charitable inning against the Cubs, Brewers reliever Jorge Julio added a fourth run-scoring walk. On April 24 this year, the Tigers' Drew VerHagen walked three straight batters with the bases loaded at Boston. And if those weren’t solace enough for Chacin, in an April 1959 game between the White Sox and Kansas City Athletics, three A’s pitchers combined to issue eight bases-loaded walks plus one bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in a single inning. The last of those pitchers, 15-year Major Leaguer George Brunet, was responsible for six of the run-scoring walks and the hit-by-pitch.

“It was uncharacteristic how the inning went. Jhoulys has some walks this year, but it’s more pitching guys carefully. Tonight, he struggled to throw strikes,” manager Craig Counsell said.

The Brewers do have other options. Freddy Peralta, who relieved Chacin with two outs in the third inning and surrendered Kevin Newman’s two-run single before settling in, could return to the rotation if club officials want to give Chacin a break. Jimmy Nelson, back to full health after losing all of last season to shoulder surgery, is waiting his turn at Triple-A San Antonio, where he most recently pitched five innings on Wednesday without allowing an earned run.

Asked whether the Brewers would consider giving Chacin some kind of break, Counsell said, “We have to figure out how to get him pitching the way he’s capable of. I think that’s what our mission is going to be.”

Asked again whether that could entail a break, Counsell repeated, “We have to figure out how to get him pitching really well.”

The first sign that this was not going to be the night Chacin turned around his season came in the bottom of the first inning, when he tried to snap off his signature pitch, the slider, to the Pirates’ best hitter, Josh Bell.

As has so often been the case this season, the 2-2 pitch lacked its usual bite and couldn’t find the back door of the strike zone. Bell looked at it for Ball 3 while Starling Marte slid into second with a stolen base. Chacin snapped his right fingers in frustration, then spun another slider closer to the edge of the zone. Bell punched it through the hole at shortstop for an RBI single.

For Chacin, it was the start of a frustrating night.

“So far, it’s a frustrating season,” he said. “But I won’t give up. I won’t put my head down. I’m going to keep working until I get better. Just, I have to change something. Whatever happened last year happened last year. I have to focus on what needs to be done this year, and get better.”

He added, “Baseball gives you a lot of joy. It happened to me last year. It also … sends you to the battle and gives you hard times. I don’t feel like I’m going to lose my confidence. I won’t give up. I’m going to keep working hard, trying to get better, and keep my head up.”