Sequel just as unsightly as the previous version
It was like someone hit copy on the Milwaukee Brewers performance from Friday night and pasted it over to Saturday.
The offense struggled mightily against an electric San Diego Padres starting pitcher while the Brewers’ own young, excellent arm allowed more runs than typical in another shutout loss.
Instead of Joe Musgrove taking a nohitter into the eighth as he did the day before, it was the Padres’ 23-year-old rookie lefty Mackenzie Gore striking out 10 over six scoreless as San Diego rolled to a 4-0 win at American Family Field.
Milwaukee was shut out in consecutive games for the first time since July 3-4, 2019.
“The game happens and you’re not gonna stop the game,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We got to figure out a way to score and we just haven’t had good at-bats. We faced two very good pitchers the last two days. But then we got to figure out a way to score.”
With a lineup missing regulars — when healthy — Christian Yelich, Luis Urías, Hunter Renfroe, Willy Adames and Omar Narváez, the Brewers were already facing a disadvantage against Gore.
“We’re a little more banged up and the guys that are out there, they have to play and they’re capable of putting up runs,” Counsell said. “Against good pitchers, you’re just not gonna get many chances to do it. And the last two days, we haven’t been able to capitalize on kind of small opportunities that we’ve had.”
They managed three hits and three walks off Gore, who has firmly entrenched himself in the running to win rookie of the year in the National League, and had only one runner reach second base.
“Young pitcher looking to attack the zone and obviously has plus stuff and gets ahead of counts, keeps you off-balance,” Keston Hiura said on the heels of a four-strikeout game. “It’s the funky delivery, as well, so first time (seeing him), he obviously did pretty well against us.”
A night after reigning Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes was roughed up for his worst outing of the season, Brewers starter Aaron Ashby gave up four runs over six frames, although much of that damage was the result of bad luck.
A pair of grounders against the shift resulted in Padres singles to lead off the top of the fifth. One run scored on a weak tapper to second baseman Kolten Wong with one out, then the next batter, Jake Cronenworth, made it a 4-0 game with a two-run home run to right.
Even that ball was lightly-struck, at least relatively speaking for a ball that left the yard. With a 95 mph exit velocity and 37 degree launch angle, it had an expected batting average of .170, per Statcast. Hit anywhere but the protruding picnic area in right field and it’s a lazy fly, but Cronenworth placed it in the exact spot he needed to.
“Bad luck, but probably not the right pitch in that spot,” Ashby said. “I probably should have gone back to the slider there. That’s baseball. You have to make a better pitch there and learn from it.”