As the legendary football coach Bear Bryant once said, “Defense wins championships,” and without it, the Milwaukee Brewers don’t take game one against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Crew takes care of business in an 11-inning affair by a score of 7-4.
Often known for his defensive abilities, Garrett Mitchell used his bat to sneak one over the center field wall to give the Brewers an early 2-0 lead. An inning later, Jake Bauers added another run to their tally with a base hit to right field to make
it 3-0. It was nearly 4-0 before Lourdes Gurriel Jr. took away another home run from Mitchell, holding the game at bay.
Later in the bottom half of the third, the Diamondbacks found themselves with bases loaded, two outs, and down to their final strike of the inning; with a chance to cut into the Brewers’ lead, Nolan Arenado ripped a double into left field to clear the bases, tying the game at 3-3, putting an end to Kyle Harrison’s night as well.
The Brewers’ starting rotation has seen a slight decrease in productivity, specifically from their top two arms over their last couple of outings. Tonight, it was Harrison who struggled, not making it out of the third inning. He completed his evening with 2.2 innings pitched, striking out three, while allowing three runs to score on five hits and a walk. His main issue outside of the runs scoring was his pitch count, as he threw 72 pitches on the night.
Brewers quickly responded on offense by forcing the Diamondbacks to pull their starting pitcher after 3.1 innings. In Jose Cabrera’s third career start, he allowed three runs, three walks, and six hits while striking out three batters. It’s his second start in a row allowing multiple runs to score and his first time not making it into the fifth inning.
Looking at tonight’s overall issue for the Crew, it was clear: baserunning blunders followed by the inability to hit in the clutch. Overall on the night, the Crew stranded 12 runners on base, while going 3-for-18 at the plate with runners in scoring position.
The Bottom of the ninth inning is where we saw the leather on full display for the Brew Crew, saving the game in the long run. During the first at-bat of the inning with Trevor Megill on the mound, Max Kepler was robbed of extra bases with a nice leaping grab from Mitchell. Tommy Troy experienced frustration in his second at-bat as Joey Ortiz dove and caught a line drive that could’ve turned into extra bases as well.
Extra innings bit the Brewers in the rear earlier this week in their homestand finale against the Cubs as they stranded the tying and winning run on base. Those woes continued into tonight’s 10th inning, as Bauers struckout and Mitchell and Blake Perkins ended the inning with a ground out each.
With all the high-leverage arms used up entering the bottom of the 10th inning, Grant Anderson was on the mound to push it to the 11th inning. He intentionally walked Corbin Carroll before forcing Gabriel Moreno into a double play. Gurriel Jr. then popped out to Cooper Pratt, extending the ballgame another inning.
Late-night happy hour woke up the bats in the top of the 11th inning as a swinging bunt from Chourio forced a throwing error made by Ryan Thompson to allow the runners to score, giving the Brewers their first lead since the third inning. Brice Turang then cleared the bases with a two-RBI base hit to extend their lead to 7-3.
The Diamondbacks would only muster one run across the plate in the bottom of the 11th inning, allowing the Brewers to lock in their seventh extra-innings win on the season, improving to 54-32 overall on the season.
