Robert Gasser shines as Brewers beat Padres

Robert Gasser has a real chance at making the Brewers’ rotation to start the season, but his spring hasn’t gone well so far; coming into today, Gasser had allowed seven runs in less than seven innings, giving him an ERA over nine. But he made a strong push for a roster spot today with six excellent innings against the San Diego Padres, and the Brewers rode Gasser and three homers to an easy, near-shutout victory in the waning days of spring training.

The Brewers went nine-up, nine-down to start the game (though they did get a hit in there — a William Contreras shot off the wall on which he was thrown out at second base), but they got something going in the fourth. While Sophia Minnaert spoke with coach Néstor Corredor about the Venezuelan National Team, a pair of Venezuelans got the Brewers on the board when Jackson Chourio singled and Contreras crushed a homer to right-center. The next batter was Jake Bauers, who crushed a center-cut fastball; unfortunately, Statcast data appeared to be malfunctioning, so we don’t have measurements of Bauers’ homer, but it looked like it was over 450 feet.

Gasser, meanwhile, was cruising. He gave up a couple of hits and hit a batter in the first inning, but stranded the bases loaded, and after that early hiccup, he settled in nicely. A couple of Padres doubled off of Gasser, but neither was able to come around to score, and he had the strikeout stuff working nicely. He finished with six scoreless innings in which he allowed five hits and one walk while striking out seven on 79 pitches.

The Brewers struck again in the bottom of the sixth when Chourio got into one for his first home run of spring training, a high fly ball over the wall in left. That chased Randy Vásquez and gave the Brewers a 4-0 lead.

Milwaukee added two more in the seventh; after Joey Ortiz reached on catcher’s interference and Brandon Lockridge reached on what could’ve been called an error but was ruled a hit, Andrew Fischer cleared the bases with a well-struck double. (Does anyone else feel like Fischer would be a solidly above-average hitter in the big leagues if he were there today?)

DL Hall pitched a scoreless seventh with a strikeout, which lowered his spring ERA to 2.00. He threw only 11 pitches, so it was hard to gauge, but he did hit 95.5 mph on his fastest pitch, an encouraging sign for a pitcher who has not been throwing as hard as he has at times in the past. A couple of batters reached against Aaron Ashby in the eighth on a hit and a walk, but finished the inning with a three-pitch strikeout to strand them both.

Francisco Acuna ruined the shutout by hitting a solo homer to left off of Easton McGee to start the ninth, but a walk, a double play, and a lineout ended the game.

Chourio, Contreras, and Bauers supplied today’s homers; Chourio had two hits and Contreras three, including his first-inning blast off the wall that resulted in an out at second base. Bauers’ homer was his sixth of spring training, and by going 1-for-3, he lowered his batting average by 17 points, from .488 to .471. The team’s other extra-base hit came in the form of Fischer’s double; his spring OPS is up to 1.429.

The Brewers have two games tomorrow; the grown-ups will play the Cubs at 2:05 p.m. CT, while the kids will play in another Spring Breakout game against the Athletics at 3:05. Then it’s back to Milwaukee before the final preseason tuneups on Monday and Tuesday evening at American Family Field.