Brewers drop second Cactus League outing to Rockies

Box Score

Both offenses looked ready to play in the first inning of this afternoon’s spring training outing between the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies, but after an exciting first inning, both offenses fell into a rut and the game turned into a slog. Ultimately the Rockies took advantage of poor Milwaukee pitching and the Brewers, playing mostly third- and fourth-stringers, struggled to match up with the major-league talent that the Rockies put on the mound.

Milwaukee made some loud contact in the top of the first inning. Caleb Durbin led off with a fly ball deep down the right field line off of Colorado starter Kyle Freeland, but it was caught on the warning track. After Luis Lara grounded out, Jake Bauers drove one off the wall in the deepest part of the park for a two-out, 401-foot double, and Oliver Dunn followed with a single hit sharply enough into right field that Bauers had to hold at third (with Dunn advancing to second on the throw home). Both were stranded, though, when today’s catcher, Jorge Alfaro, struck out after an eight-pitch battle.

The Rockies then took advantage of Aaron Ashby, who struggled with his command today. Ashby faced seven batters and gave up four runs on three hits and two walks before he was pulled after 27 pitches. One of those hits, a two-run double by Jacob Stallings, should have been caught by Brewer left fielder Isaac Collins but he lost his battle with the sun. It wasn’t great to see Ashby struggle with his control, but his velocity was good (he topped out at 97.2 mph) and that’s probably all the Brewers will really worry about.

Ashby was replaced by Chase Costello, who walked another guy but finally retired nine-hole hitter Jordan Beck to end the inning.

The Brewers’ offense sputtered after the first inning. Their best contact came in the form of 107 mph line drives by Isaac Collins and Brewer Hicklen that were both snagged by new Colorado second baseman Thairo Estrada. Grant Wolfram made his unofficial Brewers debut in the second and in the third we got a look at the interesting stuff of one of the team’s better prospects, Logan Henderson. Both worked around a couple of baserunners but put up zeroes. The Rockies added a couple of runs to their lead in the fourth off of Tyler Jay.

Craig Yoho made his first appearance of the spring in the bottom of the fifth, and it was fun! That changeup is really something; he even fooled the umpire with a ball that became a called strike three after a challenge. His fastball sat at about 93, and based on today’s results, one wonders if he might become unhittable if he could get that up to 95 or so. But he might be unhittable anyway.

Hicklen led off the sixth with the Brewers’ first hit since the first inning, a double to deep right. He scored a couple of batters later on a Luis Lara blooper. Blake Holub came into the game in the bottom of the sixth and took a 108 mph liner off of his left wrist, but he was able to stay in the game. The bounce off Holub put the leadoff runner on first, but he recovered nicely and got through the inning with nothing worse than a nasty bruise.

Cooper Pratt, wearing number 87, got a two-out double in the seventh when Greg Jones dove for (and couldn’t catch) a jam-shot blooper down the right-field line. Pratt’s reward for his first hit of the spring was to get nailed in the head by a pickoff attempt; it seemed to get mostly helmet and he appeared to be fine, and was stranded at second when Ernesto Martinez Jr. flew out to center. The game ended unceremoniously after that, as neither team scored after the top of the sixth.

Milwaukee’s pitchers in this game allowed 12 hits and nine walks; each of their nine pitchers allowed at least one baserunner. Brewer hitters, meanwhile, managed only five hits and didn’t draw a single walk until there were two outs in the ninth inning.

Cactus League play continues tomorrow at 2:10 p.m. central time with a visit from the Mariners.