The unofficial second half of the Major League Baseball season kicked off on Friday. The Pittsburgh Pirates tried to carry a wave of momentum from their series win against NL Central leading St. Louis Cardinals last weekend into Miller Park against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Pirates would give the ball to Charlie Morton on the mound and he opposed Milwaukee's Mike Fiers.

The Brewers plated a run off of Charlie Morton right out of the shoot in the first inning. The run came thanks to an RBI groundout by the Brewers' Ryan Braun that scored Gerardo Parra.

The Brewers would not score for the next three innings, but they struck again in the fifth. Gerardo Parra doubled to right field to score Scooter Gennett and make it 2-0 Brewers.

The Pirates were finally able to end the shutout for the Brewers and Mike Fiers in the seventh inning. With Jung Ho Kang at-bat, Fiers hung a pitch right out over the heart of the plate and Kang made Fiers pay. The homer was Kang's fifth of the season and it cut Milwaukee's lead to 2-1.

The Brewers had a good response to the homer, however, as they plated two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Both of the runs were charged to Charlie Morton and the Brewers chased Morton before he could get an out in the seventh. Gerardo Parra reached base on an error by Pirates first baseman Pedro Alvarez to bring home Scooter Gennett and make it 3-1 Milwaukee. The Pirates pulled Morton following this in favor of Jared Hughes.

Hughes came on in relief and was able to get Jonathan Lucroy to ground into a double play, but it brought home Shane Peterson and the Brewers lead was now 4-1 over Pittsburgh.

The Brewers called upon closer Franisco Rodriguez in the top of the ninth inning. The Pirates could only get one baserunner on in the ninth and they eventually faltered by the final score of 4-1.

Charlie Morton, though giving up four earned runs in six innings of work, still did not pitch bad. He had some walks that did eventually cost him, but he seemed to just tire out in the seventh inning and could not get an out before being yanked. It was not Morton's best outing but the Pirates still had a chance in this one.

Mike Fiers, though he has not been good, earned the win on Friday night. Fiers tossed seven innings of one-run baseball and scattered just three hits while striking out seven.

ANALYSIS: The way things have gone for Mike Fiers this season, one would think that the Pirates would be able to get to him. The Brewers are a team that just doesn't have the pitching. They were able to play above their potential for a lot of 2014 season but their late collapse was a preview of things to come in 2015. However, the Brewers had their way with the Pirates, who entered the evening 18 games over .500.

The Pirates were clearly a bit rusty after a momentous way to end the first half of the season on both Saturday and Sunday last weekend against St. Louis. The Pirates are better than what they played on Friday night and they should expect to win the next two because they are the better team. They have proved it with their performance this year but Friday night is not what the Pirates can go back to. They need to hit better with runners on and that will come in time as they get back into the swing of the schedule.

BIG PICTURE: Taking a look at the big picture of things, Friday was a night the Pirates will want to forget. Now they need to take the next two games so that they still win the series. That has to be taken with a "one game at a time" mentality, but that is all Friday night was as well. It was one game out of a 162-game schedule. The Pirates are better than what they showed Friday night. Their fans know it and they know it as well.

The Cardinals were victorious over the New York Mets 3-2 so the Cardinals lead in the NL Central goes back to 3.5 games.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Bovada.com released their 2015 World Series Odds on Friday and the Pirates had the fifth-highest odds to win at 10/1, behind just Kansas City, St. Louis, Washington, and Los Angeles (Dodgers).

As for the game, there were some spectacular plays made in the field. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer made a diving stop on a hard hit ground ball to the left side of the infield. Mercer was able to throw on to second base to record the final out of the inning.

Milwaukee's Scooter Gennett had a magnificient diving play on a groundball up the middle from Pirates left fielder Starling Marte and Gennett was able to throw on to second before Andrew McCutchen could get to the base to record the first out in the ninth. Had that ball gotten threw, that inning could have played out any way. But thanks to Gennett's great play, Francisco Rodriguez was able to record his 20th save.

The Pirates will send Francisco Liriano (5-6, 2.98 ERA) to the mound Saturday night against Milwaukee's Jimmy Nelson (6-9, 4.21 ERA).