The Brewers and Giants met this afternoon for a Cactus League contest, one that technically served as the reunion of Willy Adames with his former Brewers teammates. But given that it was a spring training road game for Milwaukee, most of the faces that Adames saw were probably only vaguely familiar.
One face that Adames certainly recognized was the Brewers’ starting pitcher, Freddy Peralta. Peralta, who Pat Murphy recently announced as the Opening Day starter, made his first official appearance of the spring. We don’t know exactly how hard Peralta was throwing in this game (MLB’s Gameday did not have that info for this one), but the results were spotty, as he allowed back-to-back homers (the first of which was a three-run shot) in the first inning to Matt Chapman and Wilmer Flores. Peralta did come back out for the second and threw a 1-2-3 inning, so it wasn’t all bad. In any case, Peralta told reporters after the game that he felt “really good…better than what [he] expected” after the game, and he did strike out three batters, so everything is fine.
Offensively, the Brewers never really got much going in this game, though a couple of players vying for a starting spot did have solid afternoons. In the third inning, Caleb Durbin—playing second base today—pulled a solo homer to left off of Giants ace Logan Webb, who was in there for his third inning of work. Another candidate for that last infield spot, Oliver Dunn, continued his good spring with a leadoff double in the first inning. He is now 5-for-14 with an OPS over 1.000 in five spring games.
Milwaukee didn’t manage another run until the top of the ninth, when a handful of prospects manufactured a run, with Darrien Miller scoring on a sac fly from Luis Lara.
The Brewers did use some notable pitchers beyond Peralta today, with presumed closer Trevor Megill getting some work (he allowed a solo home run and struck out one in his inning). Bryan Hudson pitched, too, but had a forgettable day, as he walked three batters and gave up a two-RBI single to LaMonte Wade Jr. with the bases loaded; he couldn’t get out of the inning, and Willy Adames, the first batter that Hudson’s replacement Nick Merkel faced, added a couple more runs to Hudson’s ledger with another two-RBI single.
Also pitching for Milwaukee today were Chad Patrick (two innings, one run, four strikeouts) and Deivi García, who had a really nice outing (two innings, one hit, no walks, three strikeouts).
The Brewers are back at American Family Fields of Phoenix tomorrow when they face the Rangers. Texas will throw mega-prospect Kumar Rocker, while Tobias Myers will make his first Cactus League appearance of the spring for Milwaukee.
