Indians spoil JT Brubaker's strong performance to beat Pirates, avoid series sweep

Jun. 20—JT Brubaker had tied his career highs for strikeouts and longest outing when the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander gave up a double off the Clemente Wall to Eddie Rosario in the seventh inning.

Brubaker saw left-handed hitter Josh Naylor in the on-deck circle, so he peaked out to the bullpen. Lefty reliever Chasen Shreve was warming up, so Brubaker knew he needed to get Harold Ramirez out.

After a Ramirez groundout, Pirates manager Derek Shelton visited the mound and made a situational pull of his starting pitcher with two outs in favor of the lefty-lefty matchup.

"Shreve got the ground ball," Brubaker said. "It just had some eyes."

Naylor's single through the right side scored Rosario to lift the Indians to a 2-1 win Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 16,582 at PNC Park, spoiling Brubaker's strong start and the prospect of a Pirates sweep.

Shelton has had a quick hook with starters and heard the jeers from the fans, so he knew the move would be second-guessed. That didn't stop him from complimenting the home crowd for being "passionate."

"That's good. They wanted him to stay in the game. I understand that," Shelton said. "I made the decision that I thought was the best decision for us at the time. But the fact that they're passionate, I love that. The fact that they're back in the ballpark, that's great."

It helped that the Pirates (25-45) had ended a 10-game losing streak by winning two games against the Indians (39-30) and were looking for their first series sweep of the season after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals.

"Sweeping a team in the big leagues is hard," Shelton said. "It's one of the things I first learned when I got to the big leagues: Winning three of three or four of four, it's extremely challenging. You play each game differently. I don't think there's anything to it, but it's very hard to do."

The Pirates had a chance in the ninth inning when Kevin Newman reached first on a fielder's choice that forced Ben Gamel at second for the second out, then advanced to second on James Karinchak's wild pitch. But Karinchak struck out Colin Moran looking to end the game for his eighth save.

Brubaker (4-6) threw four perfect innings, including a four-pitch first, before Ramirez sent a 1-2 fastball to left field for a 408-foot home run in the fifth to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. It was the third homer of the series and sixth of the season for Ramirez, who was dealt to Toronto as part of the package in the Francisco Liriano trade in 2016. In eight career games against the Pirates, Ramirez has two doubles, five homers and eight RBIs — including two solo shots in Saturday's 6-3 loss.

"We got him earlier in the game on a two-seam down and in. I was just trying to crowd him in off," Brubaker said. "Felt like I executed, but also at the same time, he's a guy who hit two home runs (Saturday) on the inner-half on sliders. He knew it was coming probably, so it was just one of those where he cheated to it and was looking there. I gave him the pitch, so it was unfortunate."

Indians starter Sam Hentges was one pitch away from four perfect innings, as well, with the lone exception a Bryan Reynolds pop fly to shallow right field that bounced out of the glove of second baseman Cesar Hernandez but was ruled a double. Hentges only allowed one other hit, a Phillip Evans single to start the fifth, and threw five scoreless innings with one walk and four strikeouts.

Phil Maton (2-0) replaced Hentges in the sixth and gave up back-to-back singles to Adam Frazier and Ke'Bryan Hayes, whose bloop to right field dropped inside the line. Jacob Stallings hit a two-out single through the middle to score Frazier to tie it at 1-1.

Brubaker got Bobby Bradley swinging in the seventh to tie his career high with ninth strikeouts — Brubaker also had that many in 6 2/3 innings in a 5-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs last Sept. 21 — but Rosario followed with the double off the Clemente Wall.

Brubaker faced one more batter, getting Ramirez to ground out to second, before coming out after throwing 76 pitches (59 for strikes).

"He was really good," Stallings said. "It was fun catching him. We played good defense behind him, and he obviously made pretty good pitches."

The Pirates tried to rally in the seventh against Trevor Stephan, who walked Newman and gave up a single to pinch hitter Moran to put runners on first and third. But Stephan got out of the jam when Gregory Polanco popped up to short and Frazier lined out to center.

The Pirates focused on the positive, that they were able to take two out of three against the Indians by holding off a late comeback in Friday's 11-10 win and using a six-run seventh to rally Saturday.

"It's a lot more fun to win than lose, for sure," Stallings said. "So, great to get a series win, especially heading into the off-day and a long stretch of games before the All-Star Game."

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .