Jake Bauers and Andrew Vaughn both had two extra-base hits, Ethan Murray channelled his inner Barry Bonds, and Kyle Harrison struck out over half of the batters he faced to earn Milwaukee their fourth straight spring victory.
The only batter to reach base for either team in the first inning was Jake Bauers, who laced a one-out double into right field off of Mariners starter George Kirby. In the top of the second, a passed ball by Jeferson Quero allowed Patrick Wisdom to reach on a strikeout.
The next batter up was Leo Rivas, who hit a 441-foot home run to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.
Aside from the Rivas home run, Harrison — Milwaukee’s starting pitcher — pitched incredibly well today. Harrison struck out eight Mariners in just three innings of work, with four of those strikeouts coming in the second inning. He walked two batters, but only allowed two hits — the other a double off the bat of Lazaro Montes in the second.
Milwaukee finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth. Andrew Vaughn led off with a ground-rule double, prompting Mariners manager Dan Wilson to remove Kirby in favor of Troy Taylor. Taylor got David Hamilton to fly out for the first out, but Blake Perkins ripped a single into right field to score Vaughn from second. Perkins advanced to second on the throw home, giving Milwaukee another runner in scoring position with only one out. After Brock Wilken popped out for the second out, Quero walked on a 3-2 count to keep the inning alive. That brought up prospect Ethan Murray, who crushed a monster 477-foot home run (110 mph exit velocity) to give the Brewers a 4-2 lead.
The scoring didn’t stop there for the Brewers. In the bottom of the fifth, Bauers homered off of Josh Simpson for his second hit of the game. The next batter, Christian Yelich, worked a walk, and Vaughn doubled again to knock him in. Vaughn then advanced to third on a wild pitch — still with nobody out. Unfortunately, despite a two-out walk by Brock Wilken, Simpson was able to bear down. Hamilton, Perkins and Quero all struck out to end the inning with the score 6-2 Milwaukee.
Jacob Misiorowski gave up a home run to Brennan Davis to start the top of the sixth, but the scoring would end there as Milwaukee picked up their fourth straight win. Harrison and Misiorowski (3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 6K) both looked ready for the season. Jared Koenig, Jesús Broca, and Will Childers all held the Mariners scoreless in their appearances. Vaughn and Bauers both had multiple extra-base hits. Murray only had one hit, but his moonshot was probably the highlight of the game.
The Crew will look to make it five straight tomorrow in an NLCS rematch against the Los Angeles Dodgers. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m.
