Brewers drop series with Nationals after 4-3 loss

Milwaukee can’t quite complete late comeback effort

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals faced off this afternoon in the rubber match of their three-game set in the nation’s capital. Milwaukee has looked a bit like they’ve been treading water for the last couple of weeks, as uninspired play has surely left them fortunate to be 7-6 coming out of the All-Star break. A road series win against the Nationals would go a long way toward righting the ship, and Milwaukee turned to Tobias Myers—who has been their best starting pitcher for two months, now—to help them get there. But some unfortunate bounces and a bad five-batter stretch in the bottom of the sixth inning (the first five after Myers left the game) put the Brewers in a hole which they were not quite able to climb out of.

Jackson Chourio got things underway this afternoon with a base knock to left center off of Nationals starter Mitchell Parker. William Contreras flew out to right and then Gary Sánchez scalded a ball (111.6 mph) but hit it right at third baseman Trey Lipscomb, who turned a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Myers looked like he was going to get a quick bottom of the first, as he got the first two batters with just four pitches, but a 3-1 fastball to Luis García Jr. got too much of the plate and García didn’t miss it. His home run made it 1-0 Nationals after one inning.

Parker and Myers traded scoreless innings in the second. The Brewers had their leadoff man aboard in the third when Andruw Monasterio came back from 0-2 to draw a walk. Joey Ortiz made good contact but flew out to deep right, but Garrett Mitchell—getting today’s start versus the lefty Parker—knocked a base hit into center to put runners on first and second with one out. Chourio then hit a line drive that looked destined for the center field grass but CJ Abrams snagged it out of the air and doubled off Monasterio at second base. A tough break.

Myers had another zero in the third with the help of his defense; Mitchell made a nice catch down the line for the first out, and after a one-out walk, a 4-6-3 double play ended the inning. The Brewers couldn’t do anything with a two-out walk from Willy Adames in the top of the fourth, and Myers should have been through the bottom of the inning on just five pitches, but Monasterio couldn’t quite make a play on a popup in short right field while battling the sun; Myers had to use seven more pitches, but he got James Wood to fly out to center field and the inning was over.

Milwaukee got their first extra-base hit of the day when Monasterio hit a one-out double into the left field gap. Ortiz, the next batter, hit another ball hard, a deep fly ball to center, but Jacob Young ran it down in front of the warning track. Monasterio advanced to third on that play, but he was stranded when Mitchell struck out looking (maybe outside, but probably too close to take).

Things could have been very frustrating in the bottom of the fifth: Travis Blankenhorn, the leadoff hitter, was awarded first after a ghost HBP but it was overturned on review and he instead struck out. That mattered, because the next batter, Alex Call, hit a rocket off the left field wall (both TV announcers and myself thought it was a homer off the bat) that would have scored Blankenhorn if he were on base. But he wasn’t, and Young popped out and Lipscomb grounded out, and Myers was out of the inning with the score preserved at 1-0.

Chourio hit another solid line drive to lead off the sixth but he hit it right at Young, and he was robbed of a hit for the second time today. Sánchez walked with two outs, and Adames gave one a ride, but he hit it to the wrong part of the ballpark and Young made the catch on the warning track, 399 feet from home plate.

Myers was pulled after five innings and only 64 pitches. It’s not clear if this is a situation where the Brewers really do not want him to face the batting order a third time or if it’s a situation where they’re trying to keep his pitch count under control as the season moves along, but Myers was solid today, with the García homer in the first his only blemish. He was replaced by Hoby Milner, and things did not go well. Abrams and Juan Yepez led off with back-to-back singles. Milner got García Jr. to strike out looking, but the Nationals got lucky when Keibert Ruiz’s dribbler down the line stayed fair and loaded the bases with one out.

That brought up Wood, who lined a ball hard down the left field line. Chourio dove and tried to make a heroic catch but missed, and the ball got into the corner for a bases-clearing triple. Milner faced five batters (including three lefties) and retired only one of them. His struggles continue. Milner was replaced at this point by Joel Payamps, who got Harold Ramírez to ground out for the second out and then got out of the inning when the Nationals tried (and failed) a double steal, with Wood getting thrown out at the plate.

I’m not sure why the Brewers removed Myers after five innings and 64 pitches, but I hope we at least get an explanation. Milner has been better lately and has some underlying metrics on his side, but he has still not had a particularly good season. Myers has been the team’s best pitcher lately and looked good through five innings, and the Nationals’ lead went from one to four as soon as he was removed.

Anyway, it was now up to a flaccid-looking Brewers offense to get them back into this one. They did not do it in the seventh, as Rhys Hoskins popped out and Blake Perkins and pinch-hitter Brice Turang both struck out against reliever Derek Law. Elvis Peguero shut down the Nats in the bottom of the inning, and Milwaukee finally got something going in the top of the eighth when Mitchell and Chourio hit back-to-back singles with one out.

Contreras then hit a rocket to shortstop which did score a run, but Abrams made a pretty unbelievable play diving to the third-base side to get Chourio at second. That play by Abrams ended up mattering a lot because the next batter—Sánchez—obliterated a fastball right down the middle, a 111-mph, 444-foot majestic shot into left center, which made it a 4-3 game. It would have tied it had Contreras’s 105 mph ground ball made it through the left side one batter earlier. Matt Barnes replaced Garcia and struck out Adames to end the inning. Still, Milwaukee was now within a run.

Devin Williams, in need of some work (it’s been a week), came on to hold the Nationals in the bottom of the eighth, and he did so despite a one-out single and looked pretty sharp doing so. It was now up to the Brewers’ offense to get a run to tie this one off of Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan.

The Brewers nearly tied it in a hurry when Hoskins demolished a 1-2 fastball, but he was a little ahead and pulled it foul. But Hoskins kept battling, and three pitches later he lined a leadoff single into right and was replaced by pinch runner Sal Frelick. Perkins, not bunting, flew out to center field, and his inability to advance Frelick came back to bite as the next batter, Turang, grounded into a double play that ended the game.

Jackson Chourio continued to be a bright spot for the Milwaukee offense, as he had two hits and very easily could have had two more. Garrett Mitchell also stayed hot, as he was 2-for-3 with a run scored. Myers looked good again, but his early exit leaves questions, even if they’re not about his health.

Milwaukee’s struggles continue as they lost their third straight series, two of which have been against teams that are not competing for the playoffs, and dropped to 7-7 since the All-Star break and 12-15 since the beginning of July. There were some tough breaks in this one and some good Washington defense, but eventually, the Brewers will need their offense to find another gear, or they will be in big trouble. They’ll have an off day tomorrow before starting a series in Atlanta on Tuesday. They’ll then have a long, tough homestand in which they’ll face the Reds, the team with the second-best record in the NL (the Dodgers), and the team with the best record in the AL (the Guardians) before meeting the Cardinals from August 20-22 for what could be a massive series in deciding the division.