Brewers swallow up Martin Perez, Pirates with 5 home runs in 10-2 victory

Martin Perez twice this season surrendered runs in chunks of seven over two games, first in mid-April and also earlier this month.

Giving up seven runs in two games isn’t ideal (especially when it’s done twice), but at least it was better than what happened to Perez on Wednesday in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 10-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.

The Brewers (26-17) scored nine times in five-plus innings against Perez, with five home runs by (in order) William Contreras, Gary Sanchez, Sal Frelick, Joey Ortiz and Jackson Chourio. Each blast was longer than the one that preceded it, starting at 350 feet, rising to 370, 380, 425 and, finally the capper, a 441-foot shot that left Chourio’s bat at 107.8 mph.

Perez never had allowed more than three homers in a game in his 13-year career.

Manager Derek Shelton and Perez agreed the failure to properly locate pitches was to blame.

“He was sharper in the last start,” Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. He was referencing a 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on May 8 when Perez gave up four runs and eight hits in five innings. “Today, he was just in the heart of the plate the entire game.”

“When you don’t locate your pitches, games like this you’re going to have,” said Perez, whose season-long ERA rose from 3.60 to 4.86. “Most of the homers were my location.”

Shelton said none of Perez’s pitches were working, but he identified a specific issue with the changeup.

“The changeup wasn’t as effective as it’s been previously,” Shelton said, “and he left a couple of them up. You leave changeups up, they’re going to get hit.

“It’s a weapon for him, and, when that’s not one of his weapons, then everything else has to be pretty close to perfect. The changeup was not there, and, because of it, we saw him get hit hard.”

Perez, 33, has confidence he can recover.

“I’ll be fine. Games like this make me strong,” he said. “Just turn the page. I don’t want to think about it. Come back (Thursday) in Chicago and build my body for my next start.

“You’re going to have games like this. Get ready, work on my bullpen (off-day throwing session), try to have a good attitude and do my job.”

Shelton shared his pitcher’s confidence.

“The changeup has been good. I have confidence he’ll get back to executing that,” he said.

The Pirates already trailed, 7-1, when Perez went to the mound in the sixth inning. Shelton said he didn’t want to pull Perez at that point in order to save an inning for his bullpen.

He hopes the relief pitcher crisis is over after starter Quinn Priester was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis on Wednesday, putting an end to the six-man rotation. Carmen Mlodzinski arrived from Indy to add a right arm to the bullpen.

The Brewers nearly hit a sixth home run in the eighth inning against reliever Ryder Ryan, but center fielder Michael A. Taylor reached over the fence to bring back what would have been a home run by Willy Adames.

Brewers rookie pitcher Robert Gasser, a second-round draft choice of the San Diego Padres in 2021, made his second MLB start. He controlled the Pirates over five innings, allowing six hits and one run and stranding six runners.

The Pirates (19-25) scored first with a run in the third inning, but that lead didn’t last long. Andrew McCutchen opened the inning with a single to shortstop and moved to third on Bryan Reynolds’ single to center field. The run scored on Connor Joe’s sacrifice fly for his team-leading 22nd RBI.

McCutchen, a former Brewer, had three hits in the game, including a 409-foot homer in the seventh, his fifth of the season and 34th at American Family Field.

After the Pirates grabbed the early lead, the Brewers immediately punched back against Perez in the bottom of the third. Two infield singles at the bottom of the order — a hit to shortstop by Chourio and a bunt by Frelick — preceded Contreras’ three-run homer, his sixth of the season.

A walk to Joey Ortiz led to Gary Sanchez’s two-run homer — his sixth — to punctuate the inning and put the Pirates in an early 5-1 hole.

In the fourth, Frelick hit his second home run in two games — his first two of the season — to boost the Brewers’ advantage to 6-1.

The Brewers hit home runs in four consecutive innings — the third through the sixth — for the first time since 2017. Perez left the game after Chourio’s home run with no outs in the sixth. His pitching line read five-plus innings, 11 hits and nine runs for a one-day ERA of 16.20.

Luis Ortiz relieved Perez and immediately gave up a double to Frelick and triple to Contreras before walking Adames and Oritz to load the bases. The inning ended with the Brewers ahead, 10-1.

The Pirates had trouble with the top and bottom portions of the Brewers lineup. Hitters one through four were 7 for 16; hitters seven through nine were 6 for 12.

One positive note while the Pirates were losing for the sixth time in eight games: Over the sixth and seventh innings, Ortiz struck out five consecutive batters.