The Milwaukee Brewers took on Team Great Britain on Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix, and a rough fifth inning from Jared Koenig buried Milwaukee in a 7-3 loss.
With Jacob Misiorowski making his spring debut, he started the game with a pair of strikeouts wrapped around a walk to Jazz Chisholm Jr. He then gave up back-to-back singles, the second of which brought Chisholm home for a quick 1-0 lead.
Milwaukee went down 1-2-3 in the first, and Misiorowski set GBR down in order in the second. Across
two innings (38 pitches), Misiorowski recorded five strikeouts, allowing the run on a pair of hits and a walk. Not a bad spring debut for the flamethrower.
Jake Bauers drew a leadoff walk in the second, but the next three batters went down in order, and the Brewers remained in a 1-0 hole.
Aaron Ashby replaced Misiorowski in the third and allowed a two-out single but got three flyouts around it for a scoreless frame. In the bottom of the inning, Milwaukee was able to tie it up, as a walk, a single, and a throwing error by Chisholm at second got a run across to make it 1-1.
Ashby’s fourth didn’t go as smoothly as the third, as David Hamilton made an error at short that eventually scored after a wild pitch and a single. Once again, though, Milwaukee knotted it up, as Hamilton made up for his error with his first homer of the spring, a 414-foot shot to right.
The fifth inning is where things got ugly.
Jared Koenig came on in relief of Ashby and, after recording a flyout to start the inning, allowed a walk, a two-run homer, a ground-rule double, a pair of singles, and another walk. By the time he exited, the bases were loaded, and Britain had a 5-2 lead.
Kaleb Bowman replaced Koenig and allowed a single to score two more, but he got the next two out to get out of the inning with a 7-2 deficit. Not an ideal day for Koenig, as his ERA now sits at a nice, round 135.00.
Akil Baddoo got one run back with a leadoff bomb in the seventh — this one traveled 433 feet to center — but that was all Milwaukee could do in a disappointing 7-3 loss.
The Brewers recorded just five hits and three walks in this one, but they only struck out six times (remember, Misiorowski recorded five in the first two innings alone — Milwaukee’s pitching staff finished the day with 11, though they allowed 12 hits and five walks).
The Brewers are back at it on Wednesday, as they’ll host the division rival Cubs. First pitch is slated for 2:10 p.m. CT.
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