MILWAUKEE -- Reliever Evan Meek, the Pirates' lone All-Star, had a bruised right hand after being struck by a line drive in the eighth inning of an 8-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers this afternoon at Miller Park.

The team expects that Meek will be able to pitch again this season after X-rays showed no fracture.

"He'll be day to day," manager John Russell said. "Just a contusion. He's going to be pretty sore for a few days, get the swelling out of it. But the great news is that there's no fracture."

"Not being broken is the big thing," Meek said. "We'll just ice it. Hopefully, the swelling goes down, and I'll get back out there soon."

Meek fell backward on the mound right after the hard hit by the Brewers' Ryan Braun and lay there for about a minute. As he left the field, athletic trainer Brad Henderson held the right-handed pitcher's right arm forward, as Meek winced in obvious pain.

"That ball got to me so fast, I had no time," Meek said.

Asked if he felt lucky, "Yeah, I do. Had my hand not been in the way, I don't know if it would have been high enough ??? I'm just glad it wasn't at my face. We had some instances earlier in the year of guys getting hit. It's not fun. It's just not fun."

Already this season, the Pirates had lost pitchers Chris Jakubauskas and Ross Ohlendorf to line drives off the head.

Charlie Morton's first start since May 27 lasted just 3 1/3 innings -- eight runs, seven hits and a terribly pensive pitch count of 82 -- and dropped his record to 1-10. That dropped the starters' cumulative record to 24-72, and it added a fifth double-digit loser to the list, first time for that since 1954. Zach Duke is 6-12, Paul Maholm is 7-12, Ross Ohlendorf is 1-11 and Jeff Karstens is 2-8.

Taking promising newcomer James McDonald out of the equation, the starters have won twice in the past 22 games.

Neil Walker opened this one with a two-run home run -- seventh of the season, second in as many days -- in the first inning.

But Morton gave it back in the bottom half, allowing three runs on three singles and a walk, and even two of the three outs were stung. There were three more runs on three more hits in the third, and his final pitch in the fourth resulted in Braun's two-run home run that gave Milwaukee an 8-3 lead.

Morton's velocity was down, which might be explained by his having skipped a start last week with Class AAA Indianapolis, but there could be few excuses for everything else. He had little command of his offspeed stuff, failed to attack hitters and was hurt when he ventured over the plate.

Morton's ERA, frozen on 9.35 all summer, somehow rose to 10.03.

In the scope of Morton's line, any other misadventures look comparatively small. But Cedeno's dubious decision to bunt came in the second inning with Milwaukee ahead by just 3-2.

Ryan Doumit led off with a walk, and Lastings Milledge followed with a single that moved him to third.

Cedeno fouled off one pitch, then bunted up the first-base line. Dave Bush, the Brewers' pitcher, flipped to first for an easy out. The runners stayed put, and, two quick outs later, the score had not changed.

The official scorer in the press box, understandably, had a long hesitation before ruling it a sacrifice bunt. Such an announcement seldom needs to be made.

Cedeno had tried the same thing the previous night in the same inning and also with runners at the corners and no outs. He fouled that off and wound up striking out. The lone difference was that he was batting seventh rather than eighth.

The Pirates hit three home runs for a second consecutive game. In addition to Walker's, Doumit hit his 11th in the fourth inning and reached base all four times up. Delwyn Young's sixth came in the seventh inning and cut Milwaukee's lead to 8-4.

The only other bright spot was 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief from Daniel McCutchen, who, after six scoreless innings in a spot start last week against St. Louis, might supplant Morton in the rotation.

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