Brewers Take Another Silver Bullet
Milwaukee bats are cold like the Rockies
Making the trek under the Arizona sun, the Brew Crew rode onto the land of the Pima natives, to re-match the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. Pat Murphy’s squad was hoping to catch some bounce back momentum after dropping two in a row to the A’s and Mariners, with Jakob Junis getting the start. Most of the action seemed to peak in the first inning for the game with Ryan Feltner on the bump for the Rockies. Christian Yelich attempted to spark things right away with a sac fly to drive in Garrett Mitchell to score the day’s run. Junis looked to have decent command around the zone during his outing, retiring three batters in his 4 innings of work on Sunday.
Joe Ross came in to relieve after that and scraped by the next two innings with the help of some Brewers defense. After getting out of a few jams during the 5th & 6th innings, the Brew Crew just couldn’t hold the dam from breaking in the 7th. After singing take me out to the ball game, a fellow new Manitowoc friend and I watched the game slip away. Colorado cracked open the lead with two more runs in the 7th, an RBI triple by Sterlin Thompson lined out to right, and off the fielders glove. Thompson then scored on a single from Jordan beck. In the top of the 9th, second baseman Brice Turang had the lone glimpse of hope legging out a double to breathe some life with 2 outs. Gary Sanchez, with a quiet day at the plate in the DH spot, went 0 for 4 with a strikeout looking to end the game with Turang stranded on base.
With just 4 hits total for the team all day, it’s been an inconsistent spring for the Brewers so far. The starting pitching appears on track with the bullpen being the soft spot. We’ll see what adjustments to the batting order, and bullpen Pat Murphy can shake out before opening day, still plenty to do with lots of talent! Milwaukee had Monday off and will get ready to face their old skipper and the Cubs on Tuesday night at 8:05 pm Central time. Colin Rea is going to be slated against Justin Steele to take the mound at Sloan Park in Mesa.
