The Brewers outhit the Rangers for much of the night on Tuesday but fell short 5-4. Despite a consistent supply of hard-hit balls, the Brewers couldn’t manage enough timely hits to overcome a fifth inning filled with runs on both sides.
Chad Patrick got off to a great start, stifling the Texas Rangers with his signature cutter for much of his outing. It was especially noticeable in the first inning as he struck out all three batters with the pitch. He surrendered a run in the second inning off a walk and a pair of weak singles, but for the first four innings, he was in command.
The Brewers struggled to score as well, but they looked like the more formidable offense, even before they finally brought any runs across the plate. Rangers starter Jack Leiter held the Brewers scoreless through the first four innings, largely due to his ability to work around traffic rather than outright dominance. In the first inning, Jackson Chourio hit a double and William Contreras reached on a walk, but Sal Frelick hit an infield fly out to end the inning.
The Brewers once again came close to scoring in the next frame when Andrew Vaughn led off with a single, but Isaac Collins hit into an unfortunate double play. Caleb Durbin walked and stole two bases to present another threat, but Joey Ortiz struck out swinging for the third out.
Collins ran into some bad luck the next inning, as well, when he hit another ball to first base. This time, the ball was deflected directly to second baseman Cody Freeman, who recorded the out without any trouble.
In the fifth inning, the game took its wildest turn. Leiter, who had struck out four batters, looked like he was finally gaining a stronghold against Milwaukee’s offense, but the Brewers got aggressive. It started with Durbin drilling a ball to the centerfield gap, but Texas’ Michael Helman made a ranging catch.
After Ortiz reached on an infield single, Helman made an even more impressive defensive effort by robbing Brice Turang of a home run. Both Durbin’s and Turang’s batted balls had xBAs of .820, according to Baseball Savant, so once again, it seemed like Milwaukee would miss out due to the narrowest of margins. But they continued to batter Leiter as the following three batters combined for a ground-rule double (Chourio), an infield RBI single (Christian Yelich), and a two RBI single (Contreras) to take the 3-1 lead.
Out of all those at-bats, the Brewers didn’t have to work Leiter deep in counts to scrape out a quality at-bat. Only Yelich’s lasted more than four pitches, with many lasting only one or two. With the Brewers up by two, it was enough to send Texas calling to the bullpen.
Right after Leiter collapsed, a similar situation unfolded for Patrick. Despite retiring seven batters in a row, a one-out walk to Jonah Heim set the stage for Helman to cause more problems as he hit a game-tying, two-run home run off of Patrick’s cutter, which had mostly nullified Texas until that point. Milwaukee then went to the bullpen with Patrick finishing at 4 1/3 innings pitched with three earned runs on three hits, three walks, and six strikeouts.
Pat Murphy called on Aaron Ashby at this point, but he struggled as well, giving up three straight hits to the first three batters he faced. This series of events was punctuated by Kyle Higashioka hitting a hard liner to right field to give Texas a 5-3 lead.
Rhys Hoskins, activated off the injured list today, returned to game action as he entered in the sixth as a pinch-hitter for Joey Ortiz. On an inside sinker, he broke his bat as he fouled out to end the inning with the tying run at the plate.
In the seventh inning, the Brewers once again stumbled into some poor batted ball luck. With a runner on second base, Contreras fired a line drive right into Jake Burger’s mitt at first.
While Ashby gave up a string of hits upon entering the game, he recovered well to retire five of his next six batters. Grant Anderson followed with a scoreless seventh inning to keep the deficit manageable. Tobias Myers maneuvered through the eighth inning without much issue besides a momentary concern when a spiked pitch bounced up and hit Contreras’ arm, but on just 14 pitches, Myers sent the team into the last frame with a fighting chance.
The Brewers, though, had to face some of the best arms in the Rangers’ bullpen. Former Brewer Hoby Milner settled things for Texas after Leiter left the game. Luis Curvelo recorded the out on Hoskins, and Phil Maton pitched a clean eighth inning.
Facing closer Shawn Armstrong in the ninth, Durbin hit a soft fly to center field for the first out. Jake Bauers entered as a pinch-hitter, replacing Andruw Monasterio, injecting some late life into the offense with a solo home run. His 443-foot shot was a no-doubter, getting ahead of a fastball.
It meant that Armstrong had to face the top of the order with the deficit now at just one.
Turang fought through a tough at-bat, but eventually flew out to left field, leaving the Brewers with just one out. Chourio, already with two hits on the day, took an aggressive swing at the first pitch, but fouled it back. He chased on a breaking ball outside to fall behind 0-2. He ended up singling on a hanging sweeper to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. It would ultimately be futile as Christian Yelich drilled a pitch out to center but right into the glove of Helman for the final out, a moment indicative of the bad luck Milwaukee has had in these first two games.
The Brewers would like this one back, as they appeared to be the better team for much of the night. The Brewers had a .328 xBA compared to the Rangers’ .225, but it didn’t result in many runs. Outhit 11-7, the fifth-inning pitching collapse proved pivotal.
Milwaukee has already lost the series, but they’ll try to finish off their road trip with a win in the series finale tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 p.m. CT.
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