Rea shines as Brewers shut out Rockies 3-0

Yelich homers, doubles in road win

Box Score

Before today’s game, the Brewers learned that they’d have two players starting in the All-Star Game, as William Contreras and Christian Yelich prevailed in fan voting. During the game, Contreras and Yelich showed why they were in that lineup, but it was starter Colin Rea who was the star tonight as he shut out the Colorado Rockies for seven innings and made up for an offense that could score only three runs despite plenty of opportunities.

Brice Turang started the ballgame with a solid single into left field off of Rockies starter Dakota Hudson, but Contreras flew out and with Yelich at the plate, Turang was thrown out trying to steal (I’m truly sorry everyone – I’ve cursed him). But with two outs and the bases empty, the All-Star starter demolished a ball, 112 mph and 446 feet into right field, and the Brewers would take a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the first. (It’s safe to say that Yelich enjoys facing Hudson: after two hits and a walk tonight, Yelich has now reached base in 16 of 23 plate appearances against him.)

After Rea worked around a one-out single, the Brewers put together a two-out rally to add to their lead in the second. Sal Frelick worked a walk and then advanced to second base on a ball in the dirt, and he scored when Jake Bauers knocked a single into right, giving Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.

Brenton Doyle, who is apparently the greatest baseball player of all time, led off the bottom of the second with a single, but he was erased on a beautiful double play on a Michael Toglia ground ball up the middle that Turang started by flipping the ball with his glove.

The Brewers offense had more traffic in the top of the third. With one out, Contreras reached on an infield hit, and Yelich hit one even harder than his first at-bat, 113 mph, into the right field corner for a double. That brought up Willy Adames with runners on second and third with one out, but he struck out looking (on a pitch that looked a little low but was probably too close to take) and Garrett Mitchell grounded out as Milwaukee missed a good chance to extend their lead.

Colorado had their leadoff runner on again in the bottom of the third when Jake Cave singled into left, but Rea retired the next three batters and Cave did not advance past second. Hudson had his first three-up, three-down inning in the top of the fourth, and the Rockies got a one-out double in the bottom of the inning from Elias Díaz, but Rea worked around that, too, and the score remained 2-0 after four complete.

With one out in the top of the fifth, Turang and Contreras hit back-to-back singles and Yelich walked to load the bases with one out for Adames. Adames struck out looking again, the second time in the game with two runners in scoring position and one out, and he didn’t like it. He said something while walking back to the dugout, and he was tossed.

This time, though, Mitchell drew a four-pitch walk, and the Brewers’ lead increased to 3-0, and Hudson was pulled for Peter Lambert, who was recalled from Triple-A earlier today. Lambert faced Rhys Hoskins with the bases loaded, and Hoskins made pretty good contact but hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

Adames’s ejection meant a Brewers debut for Vinny Capra, who replaced him at shortstop in the bottom of the fifth. Rea continued to do what he’d done all evening, and gave up a hit but worked around it and kept the Rockies off the board.

The Brewers went three-up, three-down in the sixth, but Rea responded by getting his first 1-2-3 inning on just five pitches, and suddenly he was through six shutout innings on just 81 pitches. In the top of the seventh, Contreras hit a one-out single (a 108-mph rocket) which gave him his second three-hit game of the series, but that was all for the Brewers.

In the bottom of the seventh, Rea had to labor a bit—he gave up a one-out single to Toglia and worked into a long at-bat with Nolan Jones, but he picked off Toglia after the sixth pitch of the sequence (he was initially called safe but the Brewers won a review), and two pitches later, Rea struck out Jones to end the inning. With the premium pieces of the bullpen unavailable tonight, the Brewers needed a big start, and Rea delivered: he scattered six hits (one in each inning except the sixth) and didn’t walk a batter, struck out four, and finished seven shutout innings, just the second Brewer ever to throw seven shutout innings in Colorado, joining Chris Capuano in 2005.

The first guy out of that beleaguered bullpen tonight was Jakob Junis, who got the first two outs with a little help from Capra, who made a nice play on a line drive that took away what would have been the first career hit for Rockies rookie Aaron Schunk. He and Contreras both thought he’d struck out Charlie Blackmon looking, but they didn’t get the call, and Blackmon walked (in an at-bat that involved a strange, long review to confirm the count), and Brendan Rodgers followed with a bloop single to right. Ryan McMahon got into one, and for a minute it looked like he’d tied the game, or at least cut into the lead, but Yelich made a nice running catch on the warning track, and the lead remained at three.

A two-out single by Turang in the top of the ninth didn’t lead to anything (which capped a really nice appearance for Peter Lambert, who came into the game with a 6.47 ERA but went 4 ¹⁄₃ innings and didn’t allow a run or walk and gave up only two hits), and the Brewers would take their 3-0 lead to the ninth inning.

With Bryan Hudson and Trevor Megill unavailable, Milwaukee stuck with Junis to close this one out. Junis retired Díaz with no trouble, but Doyle—the great Brenton Doyle—followed with a double to the right field gap. Junis came back to strike out Toglia on a backdoor slider (the same pitch he didn’t got Blackmon on in the eighth) and Jones on a frontdoor changeup, and the game was over.

Milwaukee’s offense wasn’t great in this one: they didn’t capitalize on all of their early chances and they were completely shut down by a struggling pitcher, Lambert, for almost half the game. But they did just enough, and they were bailed out by Rea, who turned in one of the most impressive starts of the season. The Brewers did get nice offensive days from Turang (three singles, a run scored), Contreras (three singles), and Yelich (a solo home run, a double, a walk), but Rea was the star. Junis backed him up nicely, picking up his second career save (and first as a Brewer).

Milwaukee will look to win the series tomorrow evening at 7:10 pm, when Tobias Myers faces off with Cal Quantrill.