Lifeless Brewers fall to Rockies 4-1

Rockies pitchers are perfect for last 7 2⁄3 innings

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers took an early lead today in their rubber match with the lowly Colorado Rockies, but after Isaac Collins electrified an enormous home crowd with his first career hit in the second inning, the Brewers’ offense packed it in. They were done for the day, as Rockies starter Kyle Freeland and three relievers were perfect for the rest of the game. Milwaukee, on the other hand, got the frustrating version of Freddy Peralta today, as he was constantly working hard to limit damage until his replacement, Hoby Milner, was unable to strand two inherited runners.

Peralta had to deal with some first-inning stress, as Charlie Blackmon started the Rockies’ afternoon with a double to center. But Peralta got Ezequiel Tovar on a flyout and Ryan McMahon and Michael Toglia on groundouts, and Blackmon was stranded.

The Brewers capitalized on a Colorado miscue in their own half of the first inning. William Contreras knocked a sharp single with one out and with two outs, Gary Sánchez reached on a throwing error by McMahon. That brought up Rhys Hoskins, who has had atrocious luck on batted balls in play over the past month, and he snuck one just over the glove of Tovar at shortstop for a two-out RBI single. Blake Perkins followed with a hard-hit grounder, but it was right at McMahon, who made no mistake this time. But the Brewers made Freeland throw 32 first-inning pitches, and they had an early 1-0 lead.

Peralta shut down the Rockies with a 1-2-3 second inning, and the Brewers got a nice moment in the bottom of the inning when Collins, making his first major-league appearance, knocked a one-out single to center field for his first career hit and then stole second on the next pitch for his first career steal. But Freeland struck out Andruw Monasterio and Jackson Chourio, and the inning ended.

Colorado’s catcher Hunter Goodman jumped on the first pitch of the third inning and hit it just over the wall in right field, into the Rockies’ bullpen, and the game was tied. Peralta got Jordan Beck on a ground out, but Blackmon singled with a little flare into left and Tovar was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second with one out. Peralta locked in to strike out McMahon and Toglia, ending the inning with the game knotted at one. Freeland came out and retired the Brewers in order, though Sánchez just missed his second homer in as many days when he hit one to the warning track in the left-field corner.

The Rockies again jumped on Peralta’s first pitch of the inning in the fourth, when Brendan Rodgers knocked a ground-rule double down the left-field line—it was the third extra-base hit to lead off an inning for the Rockies. A Sam Hilliard ground ball moved Rodgers to third with one out, but Peralta again had a timely strikeout (this time of Jake Cave). That gave him a route out of the inning, but Peralta really started battling his command and walked the next two batters to load the bases for Blackmon, who was already 2-for-2. Peralta fell behind 2-0 but got Blackmon to flyout to center field, and he wriggled off the hook.

Freeland had another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth and had retired eight in a row. Peralta was back out for the fifth but his pitch count was bloated after that long third inning, as his first pitch of the inning was his 74^th. For the fourth time in five innings, Peralta allowed an extra-base hit to start the top of the fifth, when Tovar hustled for a double on a hit to center field. But Peralta had the benefit of a double play when McMahon hit a ball hard to center that was caught by Perkins, and a perfect relay cut down Tovar trying to take third after tagging up. A good thing, too, as Toglia lined a single to left and Rodgers singled with the platonic ideal of a hit-and-run. That was all for Peralta, who was replaced by Hoby Milner to face the lefty Hilliard. But things have not been going well for Milner, and he left a slider right over the middle, which Hilliard took deep for a three-run homer to give the Rockies a 4-1 lead.

It was a struggle today for Peralta. There were hard-hit balls and baserunners all over, as Peralta allowed seven hits and two walks in just 4 ²⁄₃ innings. The way it ended was bad—Peralta wasn’t happy to be taken out and Milner doesn’t look like he can get anyone out right now, so Peralta will be even more upset that two of the runs on his ledger crossed the plate when he was already out of the game. But this was the bad version of Freddy that we’ve seen for much of the year, not the good version that’s been present for most of the last month. I also hated the move to Milner: in a tie ballgame, with an off day on Monday? Use one of the seven or eight available relievers who have an ERA comfortably under five.

Freeland threw another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth. The Brewers moved to Joe Ross for the sixth, and you got the feeling that unless the Brewers found a way to score some runs, he might be asked to finish the game. Blackmon got his third hit of the afternoon with a two-out single, but Ross worked around it for a scoreless sixth.

Another very quick, very easy three-up, three-down in the bottom of the sixth inning meant that Freeland had retired 14 consecutive Brewers. Milwaukee was only down three against a team that is nearly 30 games under .500, but it was beginning to feel like they just were not going to be able to get anything going in this one.

Ross again gave up a two-out single in the seventh (this one to Rodgers), but this time Ross struck out Hilliard and it was another zero. Freeland was replaced by Seth Halvorsen in the seventh, but it didn’t matter who was throwing for the Rockies, as the Brewers were set down in order yet again.

Ross copy-pasted his first two innings: two quick outs, a two-out single, and a third out, this time on a foul pop. Sal Frelick pinch hit for Collins to lead off the eighth against the new pitcher Angel Chivilli. He struck out, and then Brice Turang pinch hit for Monasterio and he popped out, and then Chourio jumped on the first pitch (which was quite a bit inside) and hit a weak ground ball to shortstop. Twenty in a row.

The Brewers used the ninth inning to get Elvis Peguero some work (this is maybe how you should use struggling relievers) and he gave up a two-out rocket to Toglia that got past Adames at shortstop. Something happened with Peguero during the next at-bat that required the Brewers training staff to briefly talk to him, but it didn’t seem like a big deal, and he got Rodgers on a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

Facing their last chance, the Brewers sent up their 2-3-4 hitters in the ninth to face the Rockies’ active closer, Tyler Kinley. Contreras grounded out and stumbled and fell on his way to first, which felt like an apt representation of today’s game. Adames struck out, and Sánchez flew out to center. The game ended; the last Brewer to not make an out was Isaac Collins, when he had a one-out single in the second inning.

Look, I get that these games happen and that the Brewers are still in very good shape for the postseason, but this was a bad one. On a day with a full stadium, they scored only one first-inning unearned run against one of the worst pitching staffs in the league, giving them a series loss against a team that came into the series 27 games under .500, in between two off days. Extremely rough stuff.

I agree with Stephen Watson: “Flush that one.”

After the day off tomorrow, the Brewers will start a three-game set in San Francisco with the Giants on Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. CT.