For so long everything looked so good.
Jung-ho Kang, freshly back from a stint on the injured list and looking nimble in his first start at shortstop in four years, followed a second inning walk to Gregory Polanco with a 457 foot monster dive off Miller Park’s center field scoreboard to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.
Steven Brault came out firing fastballs and finding the strike zone, carrying that 2-0 lead into the sixth when Christian Yelich dropped his 24th homer into the right field bullpen, just over the reach of the leaping Polanco.
Brault quickly finished up that inning and went to the seventh, the longest start of his career, with just 75 pitches under his belt.