PITTSBURGH -- Injuries are no excuse for getting blown out on a consistent basis. A fired-up Brewers manager Ned Yost made that point very clear after another one of those nights Tuesday.

"You can use any excuse you want to be a failure," Yost said. "We can sit back and say, 'Woe is us. We don't have Ben [Sheets], and we don't have Tomo [Ohka] and we don't have Rick Helling.'

"Bull," he said defiantly. "Somebody else needs to pick up the slack, and let's go."

They went nowhere fast on Tuesday, when Jorge De La Rosa (0-3) moved into a starting rotation depleted by injuries, developed a blister on his left middle finger and lasted just three innings in what developed into an ugly 12-1 loss in front of 14,300 fans at PNC Park.

Despite a quiet night against former Brewers right-hander Victor Santos (3-5) and three Pirates relievers, the Brewers continue to rank at or near the top of the National League in offensive categories. But their pitchers have surrendered at least five runs in five straight games and nine of the last 11. Opponents have scored in double digits four times over the last 10 games.

Milwaukee slipped into a 7-0 hole on Tuesday and has been outscored, 26-4, in the first two games of this series by Pittsburgh. Yost was not at all pleased.

"I don't think we played with much intensity tonight," Yost said. "As a team, you've got to battle through adversities and you have to pick your pitching staff up like the pitching staff picks you up. Every time we fall down, we might as well fall down and quit. No, I don't think that's the case."

With Helling, Ohka and Sheets on the disabled list for most of May, Brewers starters have recorded just six quality starts in the last 22 games, four of those by lefty Chris Capuano, who hopes to come to the rescue on Wednesday night. When a Brewers starter pitches at least seven innings, the team is 13-3.

The staff ERA has ballooned to 5.26, worst in the National League.

"I can't say it doesn't concern me, but guys need to settle down and pick it up a little bit," Yost said. "Which they will. Sometimes you have to ride through the rough times, but you have to find ways to shorten them up and get out of them."

Most of the Pirates' damage was done by second baseman Jose Castillo, who hit a pair of home runs off De La Rosa that accounted for four of his career-high six RBIs, including a three-run homer in the third inning that capped a five-run Pittsburgh rally. Castillo has homered in four straight games.

The Brewers, meanwhile, were stifled by a familiar face. Santos, who pitched two seasons for the Brewers and took the young De La Rosa under his wing before the team cut ties last fall, pitched six innings and limited the Brewers to three hits, including a sixth-inning RBI single by Geoff Jenkins.

"We were a little flat," Brewers catcher Damian Miller said. "It's tough when you fall down. You can't come back every time. When you fall down by nine runs, you can't help but get deflated. You still have to play with intensity, it's just not as easy."

De La Rosa did not stick around to discuss his first Major League start since 2004, when he started four games for Milwaukee. While other players received treatment or watched video of the game, De La Rosa was out the door minutes after the Brewers suffered their third straight loss.

Acquired in the December 2003 Richie Sexson trade with Arizona, De La Rosa arrived in Milwaukee out of Minor League options but with an electric, erratic arm that the team has tried to mold into something consistently usable. Still just 25 years old, he had been particularly effective in his last five relief outings, and was called into starting duty when the team decided it had given enough opportunities to right-hander Ben Hendrickson.

The Brewers used eight different starting pitchers in 2005. De La Rosa was No. 8 in 2006.

"I wanted to see him go out and get on the attack, and he did that tonight," Yost said. "I didn't want him to go out there and beat himself. ... I don't know how much the blister was affecting him. It was affecting him a little bit, but not enough to put the whole five-run blame on."

The Brewers need all five starters for three more turns through the rotation, and Yost said he's sticking with De La Rosa. Assuming the blister heals, De La Rosa will get another chance to pitch Sunday against the Nationals.

De La Rosa worked around a double and his first of two walks in the first inning by recording three of his six strikeouts. But Castillo put the Pirates on the board with a solo home run in the second, then pounded a two-out, three-run, 441-foot blast to cap a five-run Pirates outburst in the third inning.