When the Brewers trailed 6-4 after three innings today, it felt like a game that could go either way, as questionable defense, questionable umpiring, and questionable pitching reigned. But despite a total lack of availability for either team’s preferred relieving corps, both offenses ground to a halt after that, and the Diamondbacks captailzed on a poor start by Brewer starter Jose Quintana to earn a series split in Milwaukee.
Quintana got off to an excellent start in the first inning. On the first pitch
of the afternoon, Ketel Marte hit a routine ground ball to third baseman Caleb Durbin. Geraldo Perdomo followed with a soft line drive to first baseman Andrew Vaughn, and Corbin Carroll put up a fight but struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch.
The good vibes continued when Sal Frelick pounced on Nabil Crismatt’s second pitch, a 90 mph fastball that was about as down-the-middle as down-the-middle can be, and hit a laser beam to the seats in right field for his 10th home run of the season. Crismatt got the next two, Durbin and William Contreras, but Brice Turang continued his good month with a two-out triple into the right field corner. But Crismatt got Vaughn to hit a weak grounder in front of the mound, and the inning ended with Turang stranded at third. Still, the Brewers were out to an early 1-0 lead, and it wasn’t on cheap contact, either: Frelick’s homer had an exit velocity of 107 mph, and Turang’s triple 110.
The second inning was not a good one. The first two Diamondbacks reached in the top of the second on singles, neither of which was hit particularly hard but both of which dropped in front of Isaac Collins in left field. Quintana then got ahead of Blaze Alexander 0-2, but Alexander worked a nine-pitch walk, and Quintana was suddenly facing a bases loaded, no outs situation. Tyler Locklear, the next batter, was then hit by a pitch on his left hand, although it sort of looked like he moved his hand into it and the pitch wasn’t all that far out of the zone. Regardless, it scored a run. Quintana was able to get a big first out without allowing a run when he struck out Alek Thomas on three pitches, and had a way out of the inning with the number-nine hitter, Ildemaro Vargas, at the plate.
Unfortunately, Quintana couldn’t get Vargas. He fell behind him, and Vargas lined a 2-1 fastball at the top of the zone into left field for a two-run single. That brought the top of the Arizona order to the plate, but luckily things ended there: Marte was retired via the infield fly rule, and Perdomo scorched one but Turang was able to make the catch on a jump to end the inning, in which Arizona took a 3-1 lead.
Looking for an immediate answer, the Brewers got their first two runners on in the bottom of the inning when Collins walked and Danny Jansen lined a single to left. Blake Perkins came close to extra bases with a drive to deep center—Thomas caught it, but Collins tagged and made it to third. Andruw Monasterio hit a ground ball that nearly started a double play, but he hustled down the line and beat it out, enabling Collins to score from third. A deep fly ball from Frelick ended the inning, but the Brewers had trimmed their deficit to 3-2.
Quintana’s control issues persisted in the third, when he walked Carroll to start the inning. With Lourdes Gurriel Jr. up, Carroll stole second base to give Arizona another good scoring opportunity. Gurriel also walked on what was a close 3-2 pitch, that a more generous umpire (and, perhaps, a robot) would have called a strike. The Diamondbacks had runners on first and second and nobody out, and Gabriel Moreno flew out to deep center on a ball that did what Perkins’ had done in the bottom of the second, putting runners at the corners with one out. Alexander also walked, and for the second inning in a row, Arizona had the bases loaded with less than two outs.
Chris Hook paid Quintana a visit before he again faced Locklear with the bases loaded. He didn’t hit him this time, but did fall behind 3-1. Locklear hit a ground ball on the left side of second base where the Brewers didn’t have anyone positioned, but Turang made a great play going in the wrong direction to snag it and get Locklear out with an impressive throw. A run scored, but Quintana had the second out. Thomas was up next, and he got ahead 3-0 on a series of pitches that were all close to the outside edge; another 3-0 fastball on the outer edge was given as a strike (it wasn’t as good as the first pitch, which was called a ball, but I guess they cancel each other out). But in a full count, Thomas hit a lazy fly ball on a pitch way off the plate, like a backhand lob shot in tennis, that dropped in front of Frelick and scored two more runs. Vargas flew out to left center to end the inning, but Arizona had a 6-2 lead after two-and-a-half innings.
The Brewers had no intention of going quietly, though, and they’d made some hard contact against Crismatt. With one out, Contreras reached on a fielding error by the third baseman, Alexander, and he moved up to third when Turang singled to right, giving the Brewers another excellent scoring opportunity. Vaughn, though, popped out behind shortstop for the second out without delivering the run from third. With Collins batting, Turang moved up to second on a wild pitch that wasn’t far enough away to score Contreras, and Collins delivered in the clutch with a two-run single just beyond the reach of Marte at second. Jansen flew out to end the inning, but the Brewers had again punched back, and the score was 6-4 after three.
Quintana didn’t really recover, unfortunately. He hit Marte with a 1-0 pitch to put another batter on to start the fourth. He did get the next two, Perdomo and Carroll, but Gurriel hit a jam-shot single through the right side of the infield for a two-out hit that put runners on the corners. That was the end of the day for Quintana, who needed 95 pitches to get 11 outs on a day that the beleaguered Brewer bullpen could really have used some length from him. Tobias Myers came on and needed seven pitches but got Moreno to hit a broken-bat pop fly that Turang caught behind first base. It wasn’t easy, but the Brewers held the Diamondbacks scoreless in the fourth.
Crismatt settled things down a bit in the bottom of the fourth by getting Perkins and Monasterio to start the inning on a ground ball and a soft liner, respectively. Frelick battled (including through what looked like a painful foul ball off his shin) and reached on a weird sort of check-swing hit that Alexander got a glove on but couldn’t grab, but he made up for it by getting Durbin at first on a nice play when he tried to sneak a bunt in for a single.
Alexander then made an impact on the other side of the ball by leading off the fifth with a double off of Myers. Locklear then made good contact and hit a fly ball to deep center, but Brewers fans were treated to a Blake Perkins Special when he leapt at the wall and robbed Locklear of a home run. Alexander tagged and went to third on the play, but Myers recovered nicely and stranded him there by striking out Thomas (with a couple pitches up to 98 mph, harder than he has ever thrown) and getting Vargas on a soft ground ball.
Contreras started the bottom of the fifth with a solid single. He advanced to second on a weak groundout by Turang and to third on a fly out by Vaughn, but was stranded there when Collins flew out to center on the first pitch he saw.
For the fifth straight inning, the Diamondbacks got their leadoff hitter on in the sixth when Marte lined a solid single to left on an 0-2 pitch. Perdomo nearly had a big hit when he lined one into the right-field corner but it was just foul, by an inch or two. Perdomo kept battling, and then nearly had another big hit, but Frelick gave the Brewers another great leaping catch at the wall. It wouldn’t quite have been a homer, but it was a great catch regardless, and Marte had to retreat to first base.
Myers was robbed of a strikeout on a 1-2 pitch to Carroll that was called a ball, but one pitch later he hit a grounder to first that started what became, after the Brewers requested a replay review, a 3-6-3 double play. (Carroll was initially called safe at first, but replay showed otherwise on a close play.) Another stressful inning, but another zero.
Jansen and Perkins both flew out to left to start the bottom of the sixth—Perkins’ was hit quite hard but caught on the warning track. Monasterio then chased Crismatt when he hit a double into the left-field corner, and with two outs and a runner in scoring position Arizona brought in the lefty Jalen Beeks to face Frelick. The move worked, as Frelick got decent contact but lined out to Thomas in center field to end the inning.
Myers kept going in the seventh, and Arizona just missed another homer when he led off with a deep fly ball that Perkins caught on the warning track in right center. Moreno was retired on a pop fly, too, but Alexander reached on an infield hit with two outs when Monasterio couldn’t quite make a play on a weak grounder. But Locklear went after the first pitch and hit a fly ball to center that Perkins made a comfortable play on, and Myers was through 3 1/3 without allowing a run.
Taylor Rashi was Arizona’s new pitcher, making his major-league debut, in the bottom of the seventh at age 29 and after seven years in the minors. Durbin singled on a ball that Marte dove for and knocked down but couldn’t quite handle. Contreras hit a chopper to third that the Diamdonbacks thought they could get two on, but Contreras hustled and beat the throw to first, and Turang followed with a walk to put two on with one out. Vaughn was up, and he was victim to another bad call on a 1-1 pitch that was inside off the plate. That led to a strikeout on the next pitch, but Milwaukee still had two on for Collins, who’d come through in a big spot earlier in the game. Collins worked to a 3-2 count but tried to hold up on a high fastball and couldn’t, and struck out to end the inning. It was getting late, as the Brewers still trailed 6-4 after seven complete.
Myers was removed after his 3 1/3 important innings and replaced by Easton McGee, who was on for his ninth appearance of the season after getting five outs in Wednesday’s game. Thomas greeted him rudely with a first-pitch single, but the Brewers got the first out when Turang made a really nice play on a ground ball that he had to range far to his left for. The second out came on a ground ball from Marte that deflected off McGee’s glove right to Turang, and a strikeout of Perdomo left Thomas stranded at third.
Milwaukee needed some offense, though, to back up the good work by the bullpen and the excellent defense they’d gotten since Quintana left the game in the fourth. Rashi stayed on the mound after throwing 20 pitches in his first career inning, and he got the first out on a grounder from Jansen (that sort of looked foul but was ruled fair). Perkins just missed another one on a 3-2 pitch that he hit to the warning track in right, his third fly out over 340 feet in the game. With two outs, Anthony Seigler pinch-hit for Monasterio, but he struck out, and Rashi had two scoreless innings in his debut.
McGee opened the ninth by catching Carroll looking at strike three on the inside corner. Gurriel lined his third hit of the game into left on a 1-2 sweeper that was low and out of the zone, and Moreno reached too when he hit a flare to left that dropped in front of Collins. Arizona had a threat, and Alexander, who’d reached all four times today (two hits and two walks), was up. That was no problem for Easton McGee, though, who got Alexander to hit into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play (started by shortstop Caleb Durbin!). Two big scoreless innings in relatively thankless work for McGee.
Milwaukee needed two runs, but they had the top of the order coming up, and Arizona had nowhere else to go in their bullpen so they were sticking with Rashi for a third inning. Frelick led off with a fly ball that Carroll caught on the fringe of the warning track. Durbin, next, fell behind but lined a double down the right-field line to give the Brewers a one-out baserunner. Contreras followed with a walk (helped by a close call on a 2-1 pitch), Brandon Lockridge replaced him as a pinch-runner, and Turang was up as the potential winning run.
Rashi’s first pitch to Turang was quite a bit out of the zone, and it looked like he’d hit a wall as John Curtiss warmed up in the Arizona bullpen. Turang got a 2-1 fastball that was a good pitch to hit, but he was a little under it and a little late and flew out to left for the second out. Milwaukee, up against the wall, then went to the bench and brought out Christian Yelich to face Rashi. Yelich worked the count full, but hit a weak grounder to second that ended the game.
After a wild, sloppy, and run-filled first three innings, this one hit the brakes hard in the fourth, and neither team scored across the game’s last six innings. For the second straight night, the Brewers struggled badly with runners in scoring position, as they went just 1-for-12 and left 10 on base. (The Diamondbacks weren’t much better, as they were 2-for-14 with RISP and stranded nine.) If nothing else, you had to at least feel a little good for Rashi, who had a memorable big-league debut.
Milwaukee had no shortage of baserunners, as they had 10 hits and three walks in this one. Frelick, Durbin, and Turang had two hits and one extra-base hit apiece. Quintana had a rough day (3 2/3 innings, five hits, four walks, six runs), but Myers (3 1/3 innings, three hits, no walks) and McGee (two innings, three hits, no walks) performed admirably out of the bullpen.
The struggling offense should get a jolt tomorrow, when Jackson Chourio is expected to rejoin the lineup in the first of three games in Toronto. That one starts at 6:07 p.m., when Freddy Peralta and Shane Bieber face off.
