PIRATES

Carmen Mlodzinski was rather efficient through his first three innings here today, sitting at a reasonable 42 pitches and showing good stuff through three innings. 

Then everything seemed to fall apart in the fourth inning, as the Brewers struck for five runs on five hits off Mlodzinski en route to handing the Pirates a 5-0 loss at American Family Field. 

Nothing seemed to go right in that final inning for Mlodzinski, but it all began to snowball after he gave up a leadoff single to William Contreras to conclude a 10-pitch at-bat and then allowed a double to Jake Bauers on a 3-0 "get me over" fastball. 

From there, Mlodzinski threw everything but the kitchen sink at guys. He attacked the zone with fastballs, splitters and sweepers to try and get outs, but the Brewers were hitting them all. At one point, he gave up three straight two-out, run-scoring hits -- an RBI single by Luis Rengifo, an RBI double by David Hamilton and a two-run single by Brandon Lockridge -- to put an end to a disastrous 39-pitch inning and his day. 

"Lost us the game," a dejected Mlodzinski said. "I think it was one of those days where I come in and I felt really good for the first three innings and then just spiraled, honestly. Gave absolutely everything I had to try to get out of that inning and just didn't. I think there was some really well struck balls in that inning, but there was also some weaker contact. Just spiraled on me. Want to sit here and say, 'It's never gonna happen again,' but it's probably going to happen again. Just disappointed in myself. I put in a lot of work and it didn't work out today and it cost me, cost the team the game. I'd say just disappointed in myself, honestly." 

Mlodzinski was charged with four earned runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings. He's now 1-2 with a 4.13 ERA in six appearances (five starts) this season.