The Brewers came back to tie today’s game twice, but couldn’t do it a third time as they dropped the series finale against the Twins.
Brewers starting pitcher Robert Gasser.started the bottom of the first inning with a four-pitch walk before quickly inducing two pop-ups, but Kody Clemens hit an RBI double to give Minnesota an early 1-0 lead.
Gasser managed to get out of the inning without allowing further damage, but it was a rough start for the Brewers’ No. 15 prospect. He issued two walks,
hit a batter, and ended up throwing 40 pitches before he made it back to the dugout. The second inning went a bit smoother despite the left-hander struggling to locate his pitches — including his sweeper, which is his best pitch by a good margin.
Meanwhile, the Brewers got a run of their own in the top of the second inning off of Twins starter Bailey Ober, who wasn’t exactly dominating either. Ober walked Jake Bauers to start the inning before Sal Frelick doubled on a line drive that tied the game at 1.
Things unraveled further for Gasser in the third after allowing a leadoff single to Ryan Jeffers. Kody Clemens followed with a deep fly ball to left that sent Jackson Chourio sprinting back toward the wall. Chourio jumped but couldn’t make the catch, and the ball bounced off the wall, off his shoe, and into the corner.
Chourio recovered and relayed it to cutoff man Joey Ortiz, who had no real chance to get Jeffers at the plate but threw home anyway. For some reason, Gasser was crossing the third-base line in front of Ortiz instead of backing up the plate. The throw skipped wide of William Contreras and bounced into the dugout, and because the ball went out of play, Clemens — already standing on second — was awarded two bases to bring the score to Minnesota 3, Milwaukee 1. The play was ruled a double and a throwing error on Ortiz:
However, the Brewers kept chipping away at Ober, getting a run back in the fourth on a home run from Garrett Mitchell that left the bat at 115.5 mph, making it the hardest-hit ball by a Brewer this season.
In the top of the fifth, Christian Yelich, who had been out of the lineup with back soreness, tied the game with a solo home run of his own.
Gasser’s day was done after a 1-2-3 fourth inning that brought him to 79 pitches. He left having allowed only three hits, but walked two batters, hit three more, and gave up three runs — two of them earned. Grant Anderson came in for the fifth and immediately gave up a home run to Jeffers to put the Twins ahead by a run once again.
Minnesota got one final run in the eighth off of Jake Woodford, whose second pitch of the night was sent deep into left-center field by Luke Keaschall. Chourio slid to try and make the catch, but the ball popped out of his glove and Keaschall ended up on third with a triple. The next batter up was Victor Caratini, who hit a sacrifice fly to bring him home.
Despite not having scored since the Yelich home run in the fifth, the Brewers refused to go down quietly in the ninth. Brice Turang worked a one-out walk off of Luis Garcia, and William Contreras singled to put runners on first and second. Garcia was able to strike out Yelich (on a foul tip) for the second out, but Bauers came through in the clutch with a single that scored Turang and advanced Contreras to third. With the tying run just 90 feet away, Frelick popped out behind the plate to end the game.
This was a winnable game. Milwaukee only scored four runs on ten hits, mostly due to hitting an abysmal 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Still, despite the loss, the Brewers took two of three games from the Twins and have won three straight series as they head to Chicago to face the NL Central-leading Cubs. Brandon Sproat is scheduled to start opposite lefty Shota Imanaga. First pitch for tomorrow’s series opener is 6:40 p.m.
