Brewers suffer disappointing extra-innings loss in Miami

Box Score

On a night that Milwaukee may have lost another starting pitcher, the Brewers had one of their more disappointing losses of the season as they blew a 2-0 lead (that was 2-1 in the ninth) via a series of bad luck, mishaps, and questionable strategic moves, losing 3-2 in 10 innings to the lowly Miami Marlins.

Joe Ross was the starting pitcher for Milwaukee tonight, but he made it through only one inning. He allowed a hit and a walk but got out of the inning unscathed after a nice double play started by Andruw Monasterio before being removed with some sort of injury. According to Sophia Minnaert, he’d been dealing with back tightness the last couple of days and thought he could go today, but the back flared up once he started pitching today and he wasn’t able to go past the first. Jared Koenig replaced him in the bottom of the second inning.

Besides the couple of baserunners that Ross allowed in the first inning, pitching dominated early for both teams. Miami starter Ryan Weathers was perfect through the first 11 Brewers batters, only allowing a baserunner when a sweeper got away from him and hit Joey Ortiz on the back foot. Koenig was three-up-three-down through his first two innings and erased a walk with a double play in his third inning, but a two-out single by Jesús Sánchez ended his evening with two outs in the fourth; he was replaced by Joel Payamps, who retired Jake Burger to end the inning.

Something finally happened offensively for Milwaukee in the fifth, as they got power from an unlikely source: with two outs and nobody on, Monasterio hit a solo home run to center, just over the outstretched glove of Jazz Chisholm Jr. It was just Monasterio’s second hit of the season, and his first for extra bases. Owen Miller followed with a double, but Joey Wiemer grounded out to end the inning. The Brewers went to the bottom of the fifth up 1-0.

Payamps was back out for the fifth and shut the Marlins down with a 1-2-3 inning. In the top of the sixth, Christian Yelich worked a one-out walk, and then stole second and advanced to third when the throw went into center field. Joey Ortiz followed with a walk as well, and then things got wild: Yelich scored on what we’ll call a “delayed steal” of home when Marlins catcher Nick Fortes got a little lazy throwing the ball back to Weathers, while Yelich used Willy Adames in the right-handed batter’s box to screen him from Fortes’ view, enabling him to a big jump. I am not sure that I’ve ever actually seen this happen! After five-and-a-half, it was Brewers 2, Marlins 0.

Hoby Milner kept the unexpected bullpen day going strong with a perfect sixth inning. In the top of the seventh, the Brewers were unable to capitalize on a Jackson Chourio leadoff walk. In the bottom of the inning, Milner stayed on and walked the leadoff hitter, Josh Bell; Sánchez followed with a sac bunt, and that turned out to be Milner’s last hitter. He was replaced by Elvis Peguero, who made things more difficult on himself by walking Burger. Nick Gordon followed and snuck one into left field off of a diving Ortiz’s glove, and that scored the Marlins’ first run of the day, but Peguero recovered by getting Otto Lopez to ground into a double play to end the inning without further trouble.

The Marlins put the first two on against Bryan Hudson in the eighth, but he struck out Chisholm and Bryan De La Cruz and then induced a pop out from Bell. The Brewers nearly added on in the top of the ninth when Monasterio singled and pinch-hitter Jake Bauers hit a rocket down the right field line, but Bauers’ double ended up lodged under the padding in the right field wall, and Monasterio, who would have scored easily, was sent back to third base. Blake Perkins came on as a pinch hitter and walked, bringing up William Contreras with the bases loaded, and he hit a deep fly ball to right but it died on the warning track.

Trevor Megill was on to close, and for the first time this season, he blew a save. He quickly retired Sánchez and Burger, but Gordon hit a single into right (where Chourio was playing very deep—remember that), and he stole second to get into scoring position. Lopez followed and got jammed and hit a blooper into right, but Chourio, still playing deep, couldn’t quite get to it and Gordon scored. Lopez also stole second, but Megill struck out Vidal Bruján to end the ninth inning with the score tied.

Miami brought on closer Tanner Scott in extras. Scott, whose big bugaboo has been walks this season, started the inning by walking Yelich, who was trying to bunt. Ortiz did successfully get a bunt down, but it was on a 2-0 pitch that was way inside, and you might question the insistence upon bunting there with two on, nobody out, and Scott (who has walked nearly a batter per inning this season) struggling to find the strike zone. That bunt brought up Adames — who didn’t look good today — with runners on second and third and a drawn-in infield. He struck out, which brought up Gary Sánchez, who hit a pop fly that hung up just long enough for Chisholm in center.

By this point, Milwaukee had used almost all of their relievers, and they needed to turn to the struggling Mitch White in the bottom of the frame. Some bunting and intentional walk maneuvering loaded the bases with one out for Josh Bell, who came through with a base hit against a drawn-in Brewers infield.

This was a painful loss against a bad team, with a series of tough breaks (and the somewhat puzzling decision of insisting the on-fire Joey Ortiz bunt against a wild Tanner Scott with the struggling Adames on deck) mooting a day in which the team burned all of their best relievers (and got good days from almost all of them). It is made more painful by the potential loss of Joe Ross, another injury issue for the starting rotation wing of the team hospital.

Monasterio was the offensive star for the Brewers, as he went 2-for-4 with a solo home run. Bauers was 1-for-1 with the double that should have won the game. Yelich had two steals, including one of home. Jared Koenig had a nice outing, and the Brewers also got scoreless innings (or thereabouts) from Joel Payamps, Elvis Peguero, Bryan Hudson, and Joe Ross. Hoby Milner was charged with an earned run for the first time since April 14.

Insurance runs are important, folks! Tough start to the series, and the Brewers will look to get over it tomorrow evening at 5:40 p.m. for the second game of a three-game set. It’s a matchup of lefties as Robert Gasser makes his third career start against Trevor Rogers.