Brewers stifled early in 6-4 loss to Nationals

Civale punished early, Hoskins goes deep again

Box Score

The Brewers took the loss on Saturday afternoon in a 6-4 defeat as starter Aaron Civale struggled to escape the first inning.

While the Brewers attempted a late comeback, the damage was done early as Civale surrendered four runs in the opening frame. After retiring the first two batters, he gave up four hits, including a pair of doubles, and a walk. With the bases loaded, Washington designated hitter Travis Blankenhorn landed a devastating blow with a double deep off the outfield wall. The pitch was fading several inches away from the strike zone. Blankenhorn was still able to reach out anyway, to be followed by Alex Call’s RBI single for a 4-0 lead. Civale would also surrender a solo home run to Luis Garcia Jr. in the third on a breaking ball dipping below the zone, but Garcia Jr. scooped it over the wall for another run.

The Brewers’ offensive efforts were much more laborious and difficult to maintain. Against Nationals starter DJ Herz, Milwaukee didn’t register a hit until the fourth inning. They struck out six times against Herz, struggling to make contact with his dangerous fastball. The Brewers only managed a 67% in-zone contact rate against Herz’s heater.

Milwaukee scratched across their first run in the fifth inning with a dose of help from the Nationals. Sal Frelick reached on a fielding error and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jackson Chourio registered an RBI single to make it 5-1, but there was still work to do.

The bottom of the fifth inning nearly erased any chances the Brewers had when James Wood singled to plate another run against reliever Bryse Wilson. But when Wood attempted to steal third, Contreras nailed the throw to defuse the threat.

The Brewers’ offense opened up once Herz was removed from the game. The marquee moment that helped spark hope for a comeback was Rhys Hoskins home run. Another! Hoskins has been on fire with five home runs in the last 15 days, tied for 10th in baseball.

The Brewers pulled the game close in a hectic eighth inning. Back-to-back singles from Jackson Chourio and pinch-hitter Garrett Mitchell helped get traffic on the bases as the Nationals once again made some mistakes for the Brewers to turn into runs. A wild pitch from reliever Kyle Finnegan allowed Chourio to cross home plate with Mitchell advancing to third on Finnegan’s first pitch.

Gary Sanchez hadn’t seen the field as much over the last month, but he came through with a single through the middle to score Mitchell. Suddenly, the Brewers trailed just 6-4, but time was running out with just four outs left.

The Brewers were able to get a runner in scoring position in the ninth when Brice Turang singled and subsequently advanced to second on defensive indifference. They weren’t able to pull off the comeback, despite the bullpen doing a fair job of keeping the game in reach after a rough first inning from Civale.

A tight loss still counts as a loss, though, and it wasn’t particularly encouraging. Chourio went 2-for-5, but the rest of the team went 6-for-30 with nine strikeouts.

The Brewers have a chance to win the series in tomorrow’s early 12:35 p.m. game with Tobias Myers expected to take on Mitchell Parker.