Brewers can’t capitalize on comeback opportunities, fall 8-5

Milwaukee falls behind early, can’t complete comeback

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals early on Saturday afternoon, but found themselves unable to capitalize on the several opportunities they had to get all the way back into this game, which had some heightened tensions. The Cardinals put up seven runs on Brewers starter Jose Quintana in what was his worst outing with his new team, and Milwaukee struggled through four innings against St. Louis’ Andre Pallante. But they started a comeback with three runs in the fifth, only to fail to come up with the big hit late.

This one nearly went off the rails before the Brewers ever came to the plate. Masyn Winn started the game with a single to center field, and Iván Herrera followed with a walk. Alec Burleson was next, and after fouling off a bunt attempt on the first pitch, he also knocked a single into center. That scored Winn and appeared to get Herrera to third on a close play, but Milwaukee challenged the call at third base, and replay showed that Caleb Durbin did indeed get the tag down on Herrera before his foot reached the bag. Jackson Chourio had an outfield assist, and the Brewers had a very important first out. After that, Quintana settled down and struck out Willson Contreras and got Nolan Arenado to fly out harmlessly to Chourio, and the inning ended with just a single run in.

Pallante struggled to find the zone early: he walked Sal Frelick to start things off, then fell behind Chourio. But he worked the count back even, and after a few foul balls, Chourio struck out. On the third strike, Frelick stole second base — it was a close play, but Nolan Gorman was called for obstructing the base, and Frelick was safe (he probably would’ve been anyway). Contreras was next up with Frelick in scoring position, and Pallante fell behind him, too, but got him to ground out weakly on a 3-1 pitch. Frelick advanced to third, but Christian Yelich struck out, and the first inning ended with St. Louis up 1-0.

Quintana and Gorman engaged in a lengthy battle to start the second inning, which Quintana eventually won when, on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Gorman popped out in foul ground. The next batter, Jordan Walker — playing in his first game since May 28 — swung at the first pitch and knocked a single into right. Pedro Pagés was next, and he snuck one just past the glove of Rhys Hoskins for another single. With runners on first and second and one out, Quintana struck out Victor Scott II looking on a very close 3-2 pitch. (That call could have gone either way, but Cardinals manager Oli Marmol certainly thought it was a strike, and drew a stern warning from home plate umpire Vic Carapazza). Quintana wriggled off the hook again when Winn flew out to shallow center field, and despite four hits and a walk through two innings, the Cardinals had just one run.

Pallante struck out the side in the bottom of the second, giving him strikeouts for five of his first six outs. The Cardinals got another single to start the third inning, their fifth of the game, this one from Herrera. But Herrera was erased when Burleson tapped one up the middle that Joey Ortiz fielded with his foot on second base, and he threw to first to turn a 6-3 double play. Quintana then struck Contreras out looking, and though it wasn’t a 1-2-3 innings, he faced the minimum for the first time today.

A somewhat tense moment occurred in the bottom of the third, when Durbin collided with Willson Contreras after Contreras caught the throw on a 5-3 groundout. Contreras, who caught the ball well before Durbin reached first base, appeared to step somewhat backwards into the baseline when he took his foot off the base, and Durbin, who was running on the inner side of the base path, ran into him. It was a strange play, and Contreras heard it from the Brewer dugout, led by Hoskins. A little awkward, with William in the dugout. Ortiz and Frelick also grounded out, with no further incident.

Arenado led off the fourth with yet another single for the Cardinals, and Quintana then walked the lefty Gorman to put runners on first and second with no outs. It looked like Quintana might have another route out of the inning when Walker hit a grounder to Durbin at third, but his throw to second went wide, a run scored, and runners ended up on second and third with no outs. Quintana managed to strike out Pagés for the first out, but Scott knocked both runners in with a single to left on a pitch that was right down the middle. Quintana retired Winn on a groundout and Herrera on a flyout, and the inning ended, but St. Louis had increased its lead to 4-0.

Quintana had been flirting with danger all afternoon, and while Durbin’s error was costly and could have prevented this rally, Quintana was simply allowing too many baserunners, and it was bound to come back to bite him.

Looking for an answer, the Brewers got one to start the bottom of the fourth when Chourio led off the inning with a triple into the right field gap. William Contreras struck out on a fastball right down the middle. Chourio then scored with Yelich at the plate when a ball got away from Pagés (it was a passed ball on a good pitch) and Chourio came barrelling in to home plate — Pallante, trying to cover the plate, was taken out by Chourio’s slide but was fine and stayed in the game. A good thing, too, as Yelich also struck out on the next pitch.

Hoskins, who had been barking at Contreras in the third, was hit by Pallante’s 0-1 pitch, which did not appear to be on purpose. Hoskins and Contreras exchanged a few words at first base. Collins followed with a flare into shallow right, but it was caught by Gorman with his back to the infield, and the inning ended. 4-1 Cardinals after four.

Quintana finally got a leadoff guy out in the fifth when, after a fairly lengthy battle, Burleson grounded out to shortstop. Contreras was up next, and perhaps unsurprisingly, he was hit in the back with a Quintana fastball on 1-0. Contreras, Quintana’s former teammate, was good-humored about it and picked up the ball and handed it back to Quintana before heading to first base. Marmol and Pat Murphy appeared to have a bit of a standoff moment after this, too, which made for some decent WWE theater as Murphy laughed off whatever it was that Marmol said.

In the actual baseball game, Arenado drew a walk to put two guys on with just one out. Murphy clearly informed Quintana that the next batter, Gorman, would be Quintana’s last (his first pitch of that at-bat was his 100th), but Gorman got a hold of one and put it way beyond the wall in center field. The Brewers looked kind of dumb for hitting Contreras, and Quintana officially had his worst start as a Brewer. His book closed at 4 ¹⁄₃ innings, eight hits, three walks, four strikeouts, and seven runs (two of which were unearned due to the Durbin error). The Brewers trailed 7-1 as Grant Anderson came on to pitch.

Anderson, who was briefly optioned to Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday but was recalled as the roster replacement for Aaron Civale on Friday before he made an appearance with the Sounds, started by walking Walker, but he struck out Pagés and Scott to end the top of the fifth.

Though a six-run comeback was unlikely, the Brewers still had plenty of baseball left to play. Turang led off the bottom of the fifth with a single through the right side of the infield and stole second with Durbin up, and Durbin finished a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. Ortiz dropped a bunt down — he was looking for a hit, but needed to settle for a sacrifice with Arenado manning third base. Still, that put two runners in scoring position for the top of the order, and both of them scored when Frelick lined a double down the left field line. Chourio followed that with an RBI single, and Milwaukee had found its offense and cut the lead to 7-4, and St. Louis removed Pallante from the game.

The new Cardinals pitcher was right-hander Kyle Leahy, and he got Contreras and Yelich on a popout and flyout to end the inning with Chourio stranded on first. Anderson had a pretty easy top of the sixth, as he worked around a two-out Burleson single to put up a zero.

Hoskins led off the bottom of the sixth and surely wouldn’t have minded getting in to one for a little revenge, but he instead struck out meekly on three pitches. Collins also struck out, but Milwaukee extended the inning with a Turang walk and a Durbin single with two outs. Ortiz probably wasn’t the guy that most Brewers fans (or coaches, or players) wanted up in that situation, but he put a charge into one … that was caught on the run by Scott on the warning track. It went 375 feet, but needed about 15 more to even the score.

DL Hall relieved Anderson in the top of the seventh. He got Arenado to fly out to Collins and walked Gorman to start things. Walker hit a weak grounder that Hall snagged, and he threw to second to get Gorman, but Walker beat the relay throw at first, giving Pagés a chance with two outs, but he flew out, and Hall kept the Cardinals off the board.

St. Louis sent lefty JoJo Romero to the mound for the top of the Brewers’ order in the bottom of the seventh. Frelick benefitted from the sketchy defense of Walker, who has been a little better in the outfield this season but screwed up on this one: Frelick hit a hard line drive that was more or less right at Walker, and he took a couple steps in before realizing it was going to be over his head. Frelick ended up at second with what was officially his second double of the game. Chourio was then retired on what would have been an infield hit with basically anyone other than Arenado at third base, but he made a beautiful barehanded play to throw out Chourio, and Frelick had to hold at second. Contreras drew a walk to bring Yelich to the plate as the tying run, but Romero has been extra tough on lefties this year (Frelick notwithstanding), and Yelich made decent contact but flew out to left center.

Milwaukee still had a power hitter up with a chance to tie the game, and Marmol opted to play the matchup and replace Romero with righty Phil Maton to face Hoskins, who, as has been mentioned here, is in the midst of a deep slump. Hoskins got ahead 3-1, but he grounded out to shortstop, and the Brewers failed to capitalize on Frelick’s leadoff double. Hall pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, the first time all game that the Cardinals didn’t get a baserunner.

In the bottom of the inning, Turang hit a one-out single to get on base for the third time, and Durbin got hit by an 0-2 pitch to once again bring the tying run to the plate. This time, in place of Ortiz, the Brewers turned to pinch-hitter Jake Bauers. Bauers got ahead 3-0 and fouled off a 3-0 pitch right down the middle, fouled off another one in a good spot, and then took ball four to load the bases. He was replaced by pinch runner Andruw Monasterio, and the stage was set for Milwaukee’s hottest hitter, Sal Frelick.

Maton, though, came back nicely against Frelick and struck him out on three good pitches. Chourio still had a chance with the bases juiced, but Maton — benefiting from a 50/50 call on a 2-1 pitch — struck him out with a curveball, and a golden opportunity for the Brewers passed.

Willson Contreras fully embraced his role as heel when he hit a one-out solo homer off of Rob Zastryzny in the top of the ninth; he jawed at Hoskins and/or the Brewer dugout as he rounded first, and performed his home run trot as if it had a speed limit.

After Zastryzny retired the side, the Cardinals did use their closer, Ryan Helsley, in the bottom of the ninth. The younger Contreras started the inning with a home run of his own, and he flexed a bit on the Cardinal dugout in response (and also had a trot time that was worthy of the Hall of Fame). But the Brewers couldn’t come up with three further runs, despite a two-out single by Collins. The Cardinals won, 8-5.

Milwaukee had every opportunity to win this game: they stranded eight runners over the last four innings, including that crucial missed opportunity in the eighth when Frelick and Chourio struck out with the bases loaded. On the plus side, the offense looked a little livelier than it has in recent days, even if those missed opportunities stung.

And despite that strikeout, Frelick led the way, as he went 2-for-4 with two doubles, a run scored, two RBIs, and a walk. Chourio was 2-for-5 with a triple and an RBI single, and Turang reached three times. Durbin was 1-for-2 with a single and reached on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. After Quintana left the game, the Brewers got good outings from Anderson and Hall, who combined for 3 ²⁄₃ shutout innings while allowing just one hit and two walks.

Milwaukee still has a chance to make it a good series victory when they play game four tomorrow at 1:10, as Quinn Priester and Miles Mikolas will face off.