The Brewers put up a win in the Cactus League today, but for most fans, they were just interested in today’s bulk pitchers: Jacob Misiorowski, the starter, and Brandon Sproat, who followed. Both did pretty well, and a balanced Brewer offense, powered by homers from three guys who aren’t necessarily known as power hitters, did plenty.
Miz didn’t get off to a great start. The first three batters of the game, Tyler Freeman, Cole Carigg, and Jordan Beck, all singled. Beck’s knocked a run in, and TJ Rumfeld followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 2-0. After that, though, Misiorowski locked in — he finished the first with a strikeout and a groundout, and then went three more innings without allowing another hit. He did walk two in that stretch, but he ended up with four innings, two earned runs, six strikeouts, and two walks.
The Brewer offense, meanwhile, didn’t have much trouble answering the Rockies. Some bad luck in the first inning cost them a potential rally — after Sal Frelick led off with a hit, Joey Ortiz, perhaps a little sharper than his teammates due to the competitive baseball he’s been playing in the World Baseball Classic, smoked a line drive that turned into a double play. But in the second inning, Milwaukee got to one of the better Colorado pitchers, Victor Vodnik. Things started with a Jake Bauers walk, a wild pitch, and, one out later, a Brandon Lockridge walk. That brought David Hamilton to the plate, and he got a hanging 1-0 changeup that he crushed 107 mph and 431 feet for a three-run, scoreboard-flipping homer.
Vodnik got the second out but then gave up consecutive hits to Jett Williams and Frelick before getting pulled. That brought Ortiz back to the plate, and he reached on an infield single that was about 40 mph slower than the batted ball that turned into a double play in the first. That scored Williams to make it 4-2, and the Brewers very nearly broke it completely open after that; Christian Yelich walked to load the bases, and Bauers hit a fly ball at 112 mph, but Beck caught it for the third out.
Brandon Sproat was the next pitcher in for Milwaukee, and after he threw a three-up, three-down top of the fifth, Ortiz led off the bottom of the fifth with a wall-scraping homer to right. He didn’t exactly crush the ball, but it was one of those up-and-away pitches that, when Ortiz is looking good, he does damage on. Another Yelich walk, and this time another monster shot off Bauers’ bat — this one 113 mph — found grass in the outfield, scoring Yelich from first. Bauers scored a couple of batters later on a Hamilton groundout, and Milwaukee led 7-2.
Beck led off the sixth with a solo homer off of Sproat. Ortiz hit another ball hard in the sixth, but it was caught in center field. The game hummed along for a while — Jared Koenig came in with two outs in the eighth, walked a guy, and ended the inning with a groundout. Lockridge hit a homer (on his 29th birthday) in the bottom of the inning, and Sproat returned for the ninth. Sproat did allow a single and a run-scoring double in the ninth, but he finished the game with Milwaukee winning 8-4.
Milwaukee almost got through this one with just two pitchers, as Misiorowski pitched four innings and Sproat pitched 4 2/3 frames. Both pitchers allowed two earned runs on four hits; Miz, as mentioned, struck out six and walked two, while Sproat struck out three and didn’t walk any. Misiorowski threw 70 pitches, Sproat 65.
On the offensive side of the ball, Frelick and Ortiz were the two Brewers with multiple hits, while Ortiz, Lockridge, and Hamilton homered. Bauers also had a nice day, as he went 1-for-2 with a double, two batted balls with exit velocities higher than 112 mph, and a walk.
Meanwhile, some non-spring training news: Andrew Fischer came a couple of feet from hitting a grand slam in Italy’s game against Puerto Rico today. A fan reached over the wall and caught it, and it was instead ruled a two-run double (in a game Italy won by two), but Fischer crushed it. I think he can hit. Video below:
The Brewers continue their Cactus League slate tomorrow in Scottsdale against the Giants at 3:05 p.m. No TV for that one, either.
