Brewers’ offense sluggish in 5-2 loss to Royals

Bats fall short, pitchers struggle in contested matchup

Box Score

While the Milwaukee Brewers kept the score close for most of the afternoon, they eventually fell short in their loss to the Royals Sunday.

Several pitchers had underwhelming performances as the Brewers fell behind early. Starting pitcher Aaron Civale had his second bumpy outing of the spring, allowing two home runs over three innings. Those were the only two baserunners he allowed, though, so the damage was limited. Both home runs, to Jonathan India and Jac Caglianone, were leadoff homers in the first and third innings, respectively.

Later in the game, Nestor Cortes struggled through 2 ²⁄₃ innings of work. Several full counts and close plays on defense would let the Royals push another run across. But despite traffic on the basepaths and some balls in play that were nearly fieldable, he contained the Royals to that lone run for their third of the game.

The Brewers’ offense played some small ball in the third inning to notch their first run in the third inning. Milwaukee shortstop Raynel Delgado hit a single to get on base. He went to steal second, but he was able to advance to third on an errant throw. Vinny Capra, for his ninth RBI of the spring, dropped a sacrifice bunt to push Delgado across the plate.

The Brewers’ only other run would come in the next inning. Mark Canha worked an impressive eight-pitch at-bat to lead off with a walk. A wild pitch let him move to second base. It was Jake Bauers who would step up with a two-out hit to score Canha — Bauers’ double was his third of the spring.

The Brewers weren’t able to muster up much offense after that. The team finished with four hits on the day, a flat performance from the lineup. Today’s batting order, of course, didn’t feature some of the regulars that will be in the Opening Day lineup.

The Royals scored two more runs in the eighth inning off Grant Wolfram, who spent most of last season in Triple-A. Two triples and an error gave the Royals a 5-2 lead late in the game.

The Brewers drop to 6-9 this spring but get back in the action tomorrow. They will face the Seattle Mariners, with first pitch set for 3:10 p.m. CT. The game will be available on the Brewers Radio Network.