Spring Training Game Thread #2: Milwaukee Brewers (1-0) @ Colorado Rockies (2-0)

Spring Training hits its stride as Brewers take on Rockies

The Brewers and Rockies will face off this afternoon in a crucial game for early Cactus Cup positioning, as both teams come into this one undefeated.

In their Cactus League opener yesterday, the Brewers turned a 5-0 deficit into an 8-7, walk-off victory, with the win coming on a game-ending homer by Vinny Capra, his second of the afternoon; he’s currently on pace to hit about 60 homers this spring, which I think would be a record, though I didn’t actually check.

In all seriousness, it’s great to have baseball games to talk about again. As far as the Brewers’ biggest preseason question goes, we saw Joey Ortiz at shortstop yesterday with Brice Turang at second base and Caleb Durbin getting the first start of the spring at third. Both Turang and Ortiz are off today so we won’t get a whole lot of insight into what could be the regular season plan. But Durbin is in the lineup again as he slides over to second base, with Oliver Dunn in at third and Capra, coming off his big day, at shortstop. The rest of the lineup is light on big-league players; none of the team’s other anticipated regulars made the trip today, though we should see Cooper Pratt’s first appearance of the spring.

On the mound to get things started will be Aaron Ashby, a definite candidate for the pitching staff in some capacity. Whether that’s as a starter or reliever remains to be seen, but he’ll kick things off today; he’s scheduled to be followed by Logan Henderson, Grant Wolfram, Craig Yoho (one of the more intriguing bullpen pieces to watch this spring), and Tyler Jay.

There’s also a new (old) face in camp today (though he is not yet with the traveling roster), as the Brewers brought back 2023 trade deadline pickup Mark Canha on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. Canha, who was still a decent player at age 34 for the Tigers and Giants last season, was presumably brought in as cover in the wake of the news that Blake Perkins fractured his shin and could be out until May.

The Rockies are playing a split-squad game today, and the Brewers will see most of their better players. Unfortunately this means they’ll miss old friend Keston Hiura, who is in the lineup for Colorado’s other game against the Athletics.

The game starts at 2:10 p.m. CT, and can be heard on ESPN Radio in Milwaukee (94.5, also available here). Lineups below. Update: It does appear that the Rockies’ feed for this game is one of the free games of the day on MLB.TV.