This three-game series between the Brewers and Diamondbacks was… something. The first two games featured some sloppiness, some bad luck, and some late Midwestern nights. After the teams split the first two games, Brandon Sproat and newly minted All-Star Eduardo Rodríguez took to the mound today to determine the series. The All-Star looked like an All-Star and the other one didn’t, but Milwaukee gritted their teeth, had some good luck, and got a big hit from an All-Star snub that led them
to victory.
Brice Turang led off with a single for the Brewers, his seventh hit of the series after picking up three on Friday and three more on Saturday. But Jackson Chourio struck out chasing a high fastball from Rodríguez, Christian Yelich popped out to short, and Andrew Vaughn flew out down the right-field line.
In the bottom of the first, Sproat started by getting a groundout from Ketel Marte but the next batter, Geraldo Perdomo, worked to a full count before lining a double into the left-field gap for a one-out double. Corbin Carroll, up next, also picked up a double, this one on a fly ball down the right-field line. Perdomo scored to make it 1-0, and Carroll, one of the league’s fastest players, stood on second base with one out. Sproat then walked Gabriel Moreno, and he was up against the ropes early; through four batters, he’d given up two hits, a run, and a walk, and gone to a full count on three out of four batters, inflating his pitch count. Sproat was able to retire the next batter, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., on a swinging bunt, which advanced the runners to second and third, but Ildemaro Vargas gave Sproat a break and grounded out to second on the first pitch he saw to end the inning. It took 28 pitches, but Sproat was out of the inning with only one run allowed.
The tough batted ball luck that has plagued the Brewers throughout this series reared its head in the second inning. Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit line drives of 111 and 107 mph on the second and third pitches of the inning, but they were both hit right at outfielders for outs. Gary Sánchez was next, and he did a good job working the count but got under one and flew out to left field to end the inning.
Confidence in Sproat continued to waver when he walked Tim Tawa to start the second inning. After a strikeout of Pavin Smith, Tawa stole second, but Tommy Troy struck out, too, and a Marte ground ball to Vaughn—who made a nice play—ended the inning. Sproat needed another 21 pitches and was already up to 49 through two innings, but the score remained 1-0.
David Hamilton began the third with a lineout to shortstop, and Joey Ortiz grounded out weakly to second. That made eight straight since Turang led off the game with a single, but on his second at-bat he grounded out weakly to Tawa at first base. Nine straight for Rodríguez, despite just one strikeout and some decent contact.
Perdomo reached to start the second when Hamilton couldn’t handle a hard ground ball. It would’ve been a tough play and Perdomo was given an infield hit, but Hamilton maybe should’ve been able to make the play. With Carroll batting, Perdomo stole second base to give Arizona a runner in scoring position with nobody out for the middle of the order. Sproat, though, came back to strike out Carroll and Moreno before walking Gurriel Jr. after working to a full count. With two outs and runners on first and second, Vargas again grounded out with two on to end the inning.
Chourio got a ground ball through the infield to give Milwaukee their first hit since the first at-bat of the game. Yelich tried to sneak a bunt in; he didn’t get a hit, but he did advance Chourio. But Vaughn struck out looking (at a pitch that should’ve been a ball which he did not challenge) and Bauers flew out to right, and the Brewers remained without a run through four.
Sproat started the bottom of the fourth with 73 pitches already on his ledger. Tawa, leading off the inning, fell behind 0-2 quickly but fouled off three more pitches and took two more balls before tapping a grounder down the first-base line that Sproat flipped to Vaughn for the first out. Smith followed with a single into right, and Troy got a hold of one but it was caught on the fringe of the warning track by Mitchell for the second out. Marte lined a two-out single to put runners on the corners, but after a visit from Chris Hook, Perdomo flew out to left to end the inning.
Mitchell struck out to start the fifth, and Sánchez and Hamilton followed with groundouts. Through five, the extent of the Brewers’ offense was two singles.
Sproat was finished after four. He’d allowed just one run but each of his four innings was a real struggle; he’d given up five hits and walked three and it took him 92 pitches to record 12 outs. He was replaced in the fifth by Grant Anderson, who pitched two scoreless innings in Milwaukee’s win on Friday night. He made quick work of the middle of the Arizona order: Carroll popped out, Moreno grounded out, and Gurriel Jr. flew out.
Ortiz and Turang both hit into outs to start the sixth. Chourio tried to spark something with two outs and hit a ball high off the wall in center field for a double—unfortunate that it wasn’t a homer, as it went 109 mph and 423 feet, and would’ve been out in all but one other ballpark. Three pitches later, Yelich flew out to left and the inning ended.
Vargas tried to bunt for a hit to start the bottom of the inning, but Hamilton was ready and threw him out. Tawa grounded out, too, on a nice play by Ortiz. After five-up and five-down, Anderson’s day was done as Pat Murphy called for the recently recalled Drew Rom to face the lefty Smith. That move worked, as Rom—with the help of a successful challenge from Sánchez—struck out Smith looking.
Rodríguez kept going in the seventh but Vaughn led off with a base hit. Sal Frelick came in for Vaughn as a pinch-runner, but it turned out the Brewers didn’t need a pinch-runner: Frelick got to jog around the bases when Bauers got a hold of one and got it up a little higher than his 111 mph drive in the second inning. Bauers’ 16th home run of the season made it 2-1 Milwaukee and ended Rodríguez’ day on a sour note.
Kevin Ginkel was the choice to relieve Rodríguez. He struck out Mitchell to start things out, but Sánchez lined one into the left-field corner for a one-out double. Hamilton hit a line drive into right that was caught; Sánchez was able to advance to third, which allowed him to score easily when Ortiz snuck a grounder into right field. Sánchez probably wouldn’t have been able to score without advancing on Hamilton’s fly ball, good baserunning by the big fella. Ortiz was thrown out trying to steal second, but Milwaukee had flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.
Aaron Ashby relieved Rom in the seventh, an inning late to vulture a win but in a big spot to try to get a shutdown inning. Troy picked up a cheap infield hit on a swinging bunt to start the inning, and the dangerous Marte came up as the tying run. He absolutely smoked a ball at 116.8 mph, but he hit it right at Chourio for the first out. Before Ashby threw his first pitch to Perdomo, he allowed Troy to advance to second when a pickoff throw got past Bauers. Perdomo picked up a base hit, too, though Troy, who had to pause for a moment to see if Chourio could catch it, held at third to put runners on the corners with just one out. A walk to Carroll, during which Ashby was not really anywhere near the zone, loaded the bases.
That was it for Ashby, as Murphy made the call to bring Abner Uribe into a tough situation with one out and no room for error. Uribe got the ground ball he needed, but it was hit just a little too slowly, and Moreno was able to beat out a double play, scoring Arizona’s second run in the process. Max Kepler was then called on to pinch-hit in a with the chance to tie the game, but Uribe struck him out to end the inning with the Brewers still leading, 3-2.
33-year-old former Brewer farmhand Taylor Clarke was the new pitcher for Arizona in the eighth. He got Turang to fly out to left for the first out, and Chourio followed with a pop out in foul territory. Yelich had a chance with two outs, but he flew out to left to end the inning.
Uribe continued in the bottom of the 8th, but Vargas got a one-ball headstart after a confusing pitch timer violation, and Uribe walked the the free-swinging Arizona second baseman, just his 15th walk of the season. Tawa laid down a sac bunt to advance Vargas to second, which was followed by a long battle between Uribe and Smith. That battle ended fortunately for Milwaukee: Smith hit a hard line drive at 107.4 mph right at Turang, who tossed to Ortiz for an inning-ending double play.
Milwaukee was unable to muster anything against Arizona righty Drey Jameson in the ninth, so Trevor Megill had to do his work with a one-run lead. Troy became Megill’s first victim on a decently hit fly ball, but as the Brewers have learned, you have to hit it a lot better than “decently” to hit it out to center field in this ballpark. Marte was up next, and after nearly striking out looking on a very close 2-2 pitch which Sánchez unsuccessfully challenged, he drew a one-out walk.
With the tying run at first, Perdomo—who already had three hits on the day—was up. But Megill got him to pop out to third base for the second out. Megill still needed to get the dangerous Carroll, but Frelick ended the game making a leaping catch on a foul ball down the right-field line.
This was a somewhat gritty win. Milwaukee’s pitching was playing with fire all day, particularly Sproat and Ashby, and the Diamondbacks had some terrible batted ball luck and got a goo start out of Rodríguez. But Bauers’ big two-run homer and Ortiz’s clutch, two-out RBI single gave the Brewers enough offense, and Megill—with big assists from Anderson and Uribe—closed the door.
Milwaukee gets no break, as tomorrow they’ll be in St. Louis for the first of a four-day series that includes a rain makeup from early May. That starts a sprint to the All-Star break in which they’ll play eight games over the next seven days.
