Bucs can't hold on after overcoming early deficit

MILWAUKEE -- In his 44 seasons in professional baseball, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle knows exactly how many two-run bunt doubles he has seen.
"That would be the first one," Hurdle said of Orlando Arcia's sixth-inning bunt up the first-base line that helped the Brewers to a 7-4 victory over Pittsburgh on Friday night at Miller Park.
Milwaukee balanced the bunt with three homers, including two in the first inning off starter Chris Archer.
The Brewers led 4-3 entering the sixth after squandering an early three-run lead. Mike Moustakas opened with a bloop single to center off Steven Brault, who relieved to open the inning. Domingo Santana's pinch-hit double into the left-field corner sent Moustakas to third. After Manny Pina flied out, Arcia drove in both runners when his hard bunt up the line rolled over the bag and all the way into right for a double.
"We were set up inside, so if the pitch is inside, he's got no shot at pulling that off," Hurdle. "The pitch was out over the plate, so he's got a shot. He's done it. We've got a lot of tape on him doing it. He's one of the better guys in the game at pushing the ball."

With a runner on third, Arcia said he was just trying to get the ball down on the right side.
"I just knew that run was important," Arcia said. "I knew we had to find a way to get that run in. I just tried to put it on the ground that way, I wasn't really trying to get it over the bag. But I'm glad it did. It worked out pretty well."
Archer spotted the Brewers a 3-0 lead in the first as Christian Yelich and Travis Shaw each hit his 29th homer, but the Pirates answered with two runs in the third and one in the fifth on rookie Pablo Reyes' first career homer.
"My stuff was just flat in the first inning," Archer said. "You can't come out flat at any point, whether it's the first or the seventh. You've got to come out sharp and the first couple hitters, I just wasn't."

Archer, who settled down after the shaky first, remained in the game after being struck on the backside by a scorching line drive by Arcia to open the fifth inning. Lorenzo Cain walked. Arcia advanced on a flyout to left by Yelich and Cain stole second. Jesus Aguilar followed with a sacrifice fly to deep left to score Arcia.
"Again, the things that led to that," Archer said. "The walk to Cain, that puts them in a situation to hit a sac fly and get the runner to third. Then another sac fly scores that runner that got to third. I definitely want to not allow the sac fly, but there were some pitches that led up to that could have been better."
MOMENT THAT MATTERED
Reyes, a September callup who hit .289 at Triple-A Indianapolis, brought the Pirates even with one out in the fifth, lining a 1-1 pitch from starter Giovany Gonzalez over the left-field wall.

"The kid's shown the ability to swing the bat everywhere he's been and swing it with authority," Hurdle said of Reyes, listed at 5-8, 170 pounds. "For the size he is, he takes a big hack."
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Trailing 3-0 in the second with one aboard, Jordy Mercer was robbed of an extra-base hit and possibly a home run when Cain made a leaping grab above the wall in right-center. Statcast™ rated it a 4-star catch with a 26 percent catch probability. Cain needed to cover 108 feet in 5.8 seconds.

HE SAID IT
"[Bell] can't cover the line. That's why I think [Arcia] was actually taking a shot to beat him to his glove side. I could be wrong there, too. It could have been straight luck, I don't know. But it worked out. It went right over the bag. It was hard and it was firm. It looked like he knew exactly what he was trying to do." -- Hurdle, on Bell having no chance at first base on Arcia's bunt
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
After Reyes tied it at three with one out in the fifth, Starling Marte bounced a chopper deep into the hole at short, but was out at first on a long one-hop throw by shortstop Jonathan Schoop. The Pirates challenged, but the call was upheld after a review of 1:47.

UP NEXT
Right-hander Ivan Nova (8-9, 4.17 ERA) will be making his 27th start and 200th appearance of his career, while Milwaukee counters with right-hander Zach Davies (2-5, 4.75) on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. ET. Nova tossed six scoreless innings in his last start, but was 1-3 with 4.44 ERA in five August starts. He has allowed 24 homers in 146 2/3 innings.