Brewers fall to Rockies in extra innings, 4-3

Bullpen unable to hold small advantage

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers looked on their way to a sweep this afternoon in the last of three games against the lowly Colorado Rockies. But the Brewer offense, which has been so good lately, finally ran out of good fortune, and two typically excellent relievers faltered at inopportune times.

Brewers starter Chad Patrick had a difficult first inning. A leadoff walk was followed by a near-double play, but Jordan Beck beat the relay throw, and he then advanced to third when Thairo Estrada hit a single on a hit-and-run. With runners on the corners and one out, Patrick needed to throw a ton of pitches — 32 in the inning, on a very hot day — but he struck out Ryan McMahon and Brenton Doyle, and he escaped without allowing a run.

The Brewers got off to a promising start when Sal Frelick blooped a single into right off of Rockies starter Germán Márquez. But Jackson Chourio popped out, Frelick was picked off trying to steal second, and Christian Yelich grounded out.

In the top of the second, Mickey Moniak crushed a one-out double to right. Braxton Fulford and Orlando Arcia both made good contact, but both balls found gloves, and Moniak was unable to advance. In the bottom of the inning, Márquez worked around a one-out walk to Brice Turang and didn’t allow anything else.

Tyler Freeman was ejected in the top of the third when he struck out looking on a pitch that was borderline at the bottom of the zone; he was probably angrier about the called strike one, which was a worse call. Manager Warren Schaeffer also ended his afternoon early in solidarity with Freeman. Jordan Beck followed with a pop-out, and Thairo Estrada struck out as well, and Patrick had his first 1-2-3 inning.

Joey Ortiz walked with one out in the bottom of the third and stole second after Frelick popped out, but Chourio struck out to strand Ortiz at second. Ryan McMahon led off the fourth with a walk, but he was erased on a Doyle double play, and Michael Toglia’s two-out single ended up not mattering. William Contreras and Turang made sharp contact off of Márquez in the bottom of the inning, but both were caught, and it remained scoreless through four.

Patrick had one more stressful inning in the fifth, but managed to avoid surrendering a run. Fulford singled to start things and advanced to third when, on a stolen base attempt, Contreras’ throw went into center field. But Patrick got a big strikeout of Sam Hilliard and then got Beck to ground out on a comebacker, and he was through five — a major accomplishment after the way his first inning went. That would be it for Patrick: he wasn’t efficient and needed 99 pitches to get through five, but he didn’t allow a run on four hits and two walks and struck out eight batters. You get the sense that a better offense would have been a problem today, but you play the team in front of you.

The Brewers, meanwhile, continued to be baffled by Márquez. In the bottom of the fifth, Rhys Hoskins struck out, Isaac Collins grounded out, and Caleb Durbin flew out for another quiet inning. Nick Mears replaced Patrick in the top of the sixth, gave up a leadoff single, and got the next three batters on flyouts.

Márquez, who’d pitched well for the Rockies, hit a wall in the sixth. Ortiz came up just short of an opposite-field homer to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Frelick, however, did not come up short. He got into a middle-middle fastball on a 3-2 count and drove it into the Rockies’ bullpen and broke the scoreless tie. It was Frelick’s fifth homer of the year, and the Brewers were up 1-0. Márquez struck out Chourio for the second out, but Yelich got in on the homer party after that and hit one just over the wall in left for his 16th of the season, which also extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

After Contreras walked, Márquez was pulled from the game and was on the hook for a tough-luck loss. Jake Bird, Márquez’s replacement, needed just two pitches to get Turang to ground out to end the inning, but the Brewers took a 2-0 lead to the seventh.

Jared Koenig was the replacement for Mears in the seventh, and Kyle Farmer, pinch-hitting for Moniak, lined a ball right over third base for a leadoff single. But with the Rockies threatening to get a big response run, Koenig, who has been a little shaky lately, locked in. Fulford made pretty solid contact but flew out to Frelick, Arcia flew out to Chourio, and Hilliard struck out on three pitches, the last a 99-mph sinker at the top of the strike zone.

Bird remained in the game in the bottom of the seventh and looked to be on the way to an easy three-up, three-down inning. But Durbin, on an 0-2 count, hit a ball about six feet in front of the plate on a check swing, and Fulford, the catcher, threw the ball away when throwing to first. Durbin made it to second to give Ortiz a shot with two outs and a runner in scoring position, but he popped out to Arcia in shallow left and the threat passed.

Abner Uribe stepped in for Koenig in the eighth. He started by striking out Beck, and even though the author’s television feed was interrupted by a severe thunderstorm warning, the handy Gameday app informed him that Uribe got Estrada on a fly ball to left. Ortiz then nearly ended the inning with a great play on a McMahon grounder, but Hoskins was unable to hold on to the throw (it was eventually ruled as a fairly tough throwing error on Ortiz). That miscue came back to bite the Brewers immediately, as Doyle followed with an RBI double to the right field gap. The Rockies had halved the Brewers’ lead and had the tying run in scoring position, but Uribe struck out Toglia and held the lead heading to the bottom of the eighth.

Looking for an insurance run or two to pad Trevor Megill’s lead, Frelick was the batter against new Rockies pitcher Juan Mejia. But Mejia didn’t have any trouble with the top of the Brewers’ order, as Frelick grounded out, Chourio flew out, and Yelich popped out. Megill would have to protect a one-run lead.

Megill got the first batter, Farmer, on a shallow fly ball to right and got Fulford on a grounder to third just two pitches later. Megill started the next batter, Arcia, with a perfect curveball, but hung the next pitch, and Arcia, in his old ballpark, hit one just over the wall in left-center to tie the game at two. Hilliard grounded out to end the inning, but the Brewers would have to bat at least one more time, as Megill had blown a save for the third time this season.

Milwaukee went to the bottom of the ninth against rookie flamethrower Seth Halvorsen. Contreras started things with a grounder up the middle that looked destined for the outfield, but Estrada made a nice play and threw Contreras out. Turang got another chance to extend his hitting streak, and he hit one to almost the same spot that Contreras did, but Turang is faster than Contreras, and he beat it out to give the Brewers a runner. The infield hit extended his hitting streak to 13 games.

With Hoskins up, Turang took off for second, and likely would have been out, but Estrada couldn’t handle Fulford’s throw, and Turang was safe at second. Hoskins was gifted a ball on the next pitch to even the count at 1-1, and eventually walked on a 3-2 pitch, making that blown call one that mattered. Monasterio came in to pinch run for Hoskins as Collins stepped up to the plate, and on an 0-2 pitch, he nearly ended the game on a ground ball down the first base line that was foul by a couple of inches. But he struck out a couple of pitches later, and it was up to Durbin with two outs.

Durbin didn’t end the game, but he didn’t end the inning, either — he hit a weak grounder to third that ended up as an infield hit. That loaded the bases and gave Ortiz a chance to be the hero; he was visibly annoyed when a generous strike call made it 1-1 instead of 2-0, and a couple of pitches later, Ortiz popped out in foul territory. This one would go to extra innings.

Megill went out for a second inning in the top of the 10th, even after the lengthy bottom of the ninth. On a 2-2 pitch, Beck, the leadoff hitter, smashed a ball into left that Collins caught on a full run, complete with a crash into the wall that opened a door in the left field corner. He wheeled and threw it back to the infield, and the ghost runner, Hilliard, held at third after the throw got away from Durbin but was backed up by Megill. Still, though, the Rockies had the go-ahead run at third with one out, and Estrada lined the next pitch into right field for an RBI single. Megill struck out McMahon on a pitch that Estrada stole second base on, which gave Doyle a chance with two outs and a runner in scoring position. Doyle worked a long at-bat, but Megill struck him out with a nasty curveball on the eighth pitch of the sequence.

The Brewers had the top of their order coming up with Ortiz starting the inning at second base, needing one run to extend the game and two to win it. They’d face the Rockies’ Victor Vodnik, who has been good this season. Frelick hit a weak grounder to first and capitalized on a moment of hesitation by Vodnik and won the race to first base, not only getting Ortiz to third but putting the winning run on first.

One pitch later, Vodnik threw a ball in the dirt that got away from Fulford. Ortiz broke for home — a risky move — but Fulford’s toss back to Vodnik was high, and Ortiz was safe when he very easily could have been out. Chourio now had a chance to end the game with Frelick at second, but instead he drew a walk and passed the baton to Yelich. First, there was a lengthy mound visit as Vodnik had something in his eye. Vodnik then got ahead of Yelich 0-2, and he grounded to third for what was initially called a 5-4-3 double play. It was very close at first base, and Pat Murphy successfully challenged — a huge play, as the Brewers now had Frelick at third with one out rather than two.

Contreras was the batter, but on the very first pitch, he popped out to shallow second for the second out. Turang still had a shot, and Yelich took second to eliminate the force out there. But Turang struck out, and the 10th inning was over.

Grant Anderson came on to pitch in the 11th, and he struck out Toglia to start things, but gave up an RBI single to Farmer with one out. The Rockies took a 4-3 lead, but Anderson got out of the inning shortly thereafter on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play with Fulford up to end the inning.

Tyler Kinley, owner of a 6.94 ERA, was the new Rockies pitcher in the bottom of the 11th. Turang was the ghost runner, and the Brewers got the inning started with pinch-hitter Jake Bauers in place of Monasterio, who’d entered as a pinch runner for Hoskins in the ninth. Bauers didn’t work out — he struck out on three pitches — and the Brewers were in a tougher spot. Collins, the next batter, battled, worked to a full count, but struck out looking. That meant that Durbin was the Brewers’ last chance: he almost had another big clutch moment but flew out to the warning track, and the Brewers lost.

It was a disappointing end to a good week. The Brewers’ offense, which has been on a tear lately, finally ground to a halt in this one, but they were still well-positioned to win the game. Unfortunately, their two best relievers gave up runs on the same day, and a 2-0 eighth-inning lead disappeared. Sal Frelick was the lone bright spot in the Brewer order today, as he went 3-for-5 with a solo home run; the rest of the order managed just three hits in 11 innings, with Yelich’s solo homer as the only other extra-base hit. The Brewers are off on Monday before traveling to New York for a series with the Mets starting on Tuesday.