San Francisco jumps out to big lead early and doesn’t look back
Colin Rea and the Milwaukee Brewers faced off tonight against the San Francisco Giants and the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell. Milwaukee, who won the first game of the series on Tuesday, was hoping to clinch the series with a win in game two. But it was not to be: the Giants jumped all over Rea and built a huge early lead, Snell didn’t let the Brewers get back into it, and this one quickly turned into a laugher.
Snell worked through an easy, three-up, three-down first inning. Rea did not. Tyler Fitzgerald got him for a leadoff double, and he moved to third on a hard-hit flyout to deep center from Mike Yasztremski. Heliot Ramos walked to put runners on the corners with one out, but Rea got Matt Chapman to pop out. That gave Rea an opportunity to get out of the inning, but with Ramos running, Contreras missed a low fastball that went to the backstop. Fitzgerald scored, and on the next pitch, LaMonte Wade Jr. lined a single to right that scored Ramos. But that wasn’t the end of it: Jerar Encarnacion hit a fly ball that didn’t seem like it had all that much on it but made it out over the high wall in right field. Give the wind an assist. 4-0 Giants.
With a big hole to dig out of against an elite pitcher, Gary Sánchez got things started nicely by singling to left to start the second inning. Snell got the next two as Willy Adames struck out (after getting ahead 3-0) and Sal Frelick popped out to shallow center field. Rhys Hoskins drew a two-out walk, and Joey Ortiz also got ahead 3-0 and fouled off ball after ball before walking on the 10th pitch of the at-bat. At this point Snell was up to 45 pitches and the Brewers had the bases loaded, but it was a tough matchup for the left-handed Brice Turang, who struck out on three pitches. They did make Snell work hard, but didn’t have anything to show for it, and the Giants still held a four-run lead.
After the long layoff, Patrick Bailey jumped on Rea’s first pitch of the second inning and lined it into the left-field corner for the Giants’ second leadoff double in two innings. Brett Wisely followed with a bloop to left that landed in front of Jackson Chourio; Bailey couldn’t score, but runners were on the corners with nobody out for the top of the order. Fitzgerald didn’t let up: he lined a ball hard off the brick wall in right that scored Bailey and put runners at second and third. In case the Brewers expected to have any chance of winning this game, Yastrzemski golfed a low sweeper over the wall in right for a three-run homer. (The pitch was about six inches low out of the zone. This game is so stupid sometimes.)
It was 8-0 before Rea recorded the first out of the second inning. Rea just couldn’t find it tonight; a combination of bad luck (the Contreras passed ball, the Wisely blooper, Yaz homering on a ball way out of the zone) and an aggressive approach that punished Rea for not hitting the corners doomed his evening. On just the second of 13 straight days with games, Rea was asked to cover some innings, and he did what he could.
The Brewers got one back (gotta start somewhere) in the top of the third when Blake Perkins and Contreras hit back-to-back doubles. The Giants added a couple more in the bottom of the fourth, as Fitzgerald blooped a single, Yaz drove one over Perkins’ head in center (and was thrown out trying to stretch his double to a triple), and Chapman hit a 108-mph missile out to left. Rea got the last out of the fourth inning and his day was done, with Milwaukee in a 10-1 hole.
Pat Murphy used the huge deficit as a chance to get some of his regulars off their feet. Isaac Collins pinch-hit for Turang to start the fifth inning and struck out, then Garrett Mitchell pinch-hit for Chourio and doubled. (Mitchell is hot, folks. The broadcast informs us it is the first hit by a left-handed batter off of a Snell curveball all season.) Perkins and Contreras struck out to end the inning.
The struggling Elvis Peguero was the next pitcher for the Brewers, and there was a whole new defense behind him: Andruw Monasterio was in at third base, moving Ortiz to shortstop, and Collins was at second base. Eric Haase took over as the catcher. Frelick moved to left, with Mitchell taking over in right. The rest of the team stayed at Maryvale and got light work in on the backlot against the players in minor league camp.
Peguero got into trouble immediately, as he loaded the bases with one out, but he struck out Fitzgerald and was fortunate when Yaz hit another rocket but one that stayed in the air long enough for Perkins to catch.
The Giants had no reason to push Snell in this one, so he was removed after the fifth in favor of Austin Warren. The Brewers loaded the bases against Warren but didn’t score. San Francisco did add one (unearned) run in the bottom of the inning against Peguero, making it 11-1. Milwaukee got one in the top of the seventh after Mitchell reached on an error (kind of rough—I thought it should have been an infield hit and an error that allowed him to advance to second) and Monasterio knocked him in with a solid single.
Hoby Milner had his best outing in a long time. Jake Bauers pitched the eighth. He got hit pretty hard and gave up a couple more runs, but also got his first career strikeout (as a pitcher).
No Brewer had more than one hit. Doubles were hit by Perkins, Contreras, and Mitchell. Contreras picked up his 84th RBI, while Monasterio got his 14th. Rea’s season ERA jumped nearly half a run, from 3.72 to 4.21.
It was a rough game, but it happens, and it’s fine as long as the Brewers just turn the page. They’ll look to do that tomorrow evening at 8:45 p.m. when Frankie Montas faces off with Hayden Birdsong in the series finale.