Brewers 4, Pirates 3: Sal Frelick, pitching the stories in this one for Milwaukee

It's safe to say Sal Frelick hasn't gotten off to the kind of start he'd hoped for in 2024.

But he had one of those games Tuesday night that reminded you of how talented the young Milwaukee Brewers outfielder truly is.

Frelick hit a two-run home run in the second inning and contributed a pair of diving catches in center field – the second arguably the team's best defensive play this season – to help lead the way to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at American Family Field.

Box score: Brewers 4, Pirates 3

"That makes me smile because that's the kid that the Brewers drafted in the first round. That's the kid who's got the 'it' factor," said manager Pat Murphy. "We've thrown a lot at him since he's been here. We trust him. We wore him out a little bit in spring training, but now he's settling in.

"I'm happy for him."

The game hinged on the four-run second the Brewers put up against Pirates right-hander Quinn Priester.

It began with a Joey Ortiz double and Frelick followed with a 365-foot shot to right field that was his first since last Aug. 7, a span of 80 games and 284 at-bats.

That was the second-longest active streak in the major leagues behind only Miami's Tim Anderson (288 at-bats).

"Felt great," said Frelick. "All my homers are usually accidents, so I'm not up there trying to say I'm going to hit a homer. I think they're thrown, and he threw a homer pitch to me.

"It was good to get one."

Milwaukee (25-17) then followed with a barrage of singles, with Oliver Dunn, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang and Christian Yelich each racking one up as the lead grew to 4-0.

"It's funny; it's contagious, it really is," Frelick said. "I've felt it when I'm hitting behind guys and they're all getting on base. It's like the pitcher kind of falls into a kind of, 'Oh, no,' mentality and guys are just fighting to get to the bat rack.

"I think that inning just encapsulated that."

Staked to that early lead, Joe Ross made it stand up and was one good pitch away from blanking the Pirates over five innings. But with a runner on and two outs he left a fastball out over the plate to Nick Gonzales, and he drove it out to left to cut the Brewers' lead in half.

Ross (2-4) retired the final four batters he faced and was pulled after 91 pitches.

Left-hander Bryan Hudson continued his strong work out of the bullpen with two perfect innings and three strikeouts behind Ross. Then it was Elvis Peguero who threw a 1-2-3 eighth that was punctuated by Frelick's Jim Edmonds-like catch for the third out.

It came on a 107.9-mph line drive off the bat of Andrew McCutchen – one of Frelick's favorite players growing up – and saw Frelick make a beeline to his right and then reach out on a dead sprint and haul it in with a full-length dive.

Ticketed to be a double at least depending on how it bounced, it had an expected batting average of .770.

"Those balls hit really hard and low on a line, you're not really sure if you're going back or coming in on it," said Frelick, who also robbed Jared Triolo of a single by coming in and scooping up his sinking liner to center with a sprawling catch to end the Pittsburgh second.

"If you freeze for a second, it could fall. Actually, today we had Rickie (Weeks) out there hitting us those line drives and getting a read for in, back.

"So, I think it was perfect timing for that one hit out there."

Priester did a nice job of regaining his composure after Milwaukee's four-run second, and he and Kyle Nicolas teamed up to keep the Brewers off the board the rest of the way.

Thus, Trevor Megill didn't have a lot of wiggle room as he took over in the ninth.

He was one strike away from slamming the door on his fifth save when Connor Joe homered to left, making it a one-run game with another home-run threat in Jack Suwinski coming to the plate.

Megill fell behind, 2-0, then recovered to strike Suwinski out, ending Milwaukee's two-game losing streak.

The Brewers' foursome of pitchers combined to retire 16 of the final 17 hitters.

With a single in the first inning, William Contreras extended his on-base streak to a career-best 22 games.

Additionally, the Brewers improved to 9-5 in one-run games and 4-2 on the current homestand.

Brewers time, TV, radio

The Brewers game starts at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday.

TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620 and a state network.

Pirates lineup

• Andrew McCutchen DH

• Bryan Reynolds RF

• Oneil Cruz SS

• Connor Joe 1B

• Jack Suwinski LF

• Nick Gonzales 2B

• Yasmani Grandal C

• Jared Triolo 3B

• Michael A. Taylor CF

Brewers lineup

• Brice Turang 2B

• William Contreras C

• Christian Yelich LF

• Willy Adames SS

• Jake Bauers 1B

• Joey Ortiz 3B

• Sal Frelick CF

• Oliver Dunn DH

• Jackson Chourio RF

Brewers schedule

Brewers vs. Pirates, 12:10 p.m. Wednesday. Milwaukee LHP Robert Gasser (1-0, 0.00) vs. Pittsburgh LHP Martín Pérez (1-2, 3.60). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.

Off Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sal Frelick, pitchers lead Brewers' 4-3 victory over Pirates