Davies struggles in home opener
Success in home openers continues to elude the Milwaukee Brewers.
They dropped their fourth straight on Monday afternoon at Miller Park, with a rough start by Zach Davies at the root of an 8-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals that dropped them from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Davies, a slow starter in each of his two previous seasons with the Brewers, was tagged for eight hits and seven runs (six earned) to go along with six strikeouts in a 52⁄ 3- inning outing.
The right-hander was done in by a big mistake in the fifth inning, a two-run home run surrendered to opposing pitcher Miles Mikolas that also served as his first major-league hit.
Four sixth-inning singles by the Cardinals then chased Davies, and one batter later Paul DeJong put the game out of reach for St. Louis with a three-run homer off rookie Brandon Woodruff.
On the bright side, at least Davies emerged from the game healthy, something Junior Guerra couldn’t claim after starting last year’s home opener. Guerra strained his right calf while trying to run out a bunt in the third inning, landed on the disabled list for nearly two months and never regained traction after that.
The Brewers hit three homers of their own off Mikolas with Manny Piña, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Thames going deep after Milwaukee hit just one in 30 total innings over the weekend in its sweep in San Diego.
The loss was Milwaukee’s second ever to St. Louis in a home opener; the Cardinals won the other meeting, 11-5, on April 6, 2012.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
TROUBLING TREND: Davies brought a 2-5 record, 7.34 earned-run average and WHIP of 2.00 in eight previous March / April starts into Monday -- ugly numbers that he said this spring he was aiming to turn around. But his outing against the Cardinals wound up being more of the same, with a tough sixth inning sealing his fate. The Brewers are going to need Davies to push the reset button and figure things out quickly this year, considering his status as the team’s No. 2 starter.
IT’S BEEN A WHILE: When Cain launched a Mikolas curveball out to left field in the third inning, it was the first round-tripper he’d hit as a member of the Brewers since Sept. 26, 2010 — when he was a rookie and just months away from being traded to the Kansas City Royals — and just his second overall. Cain hit a total of 56 homers over his seven seasons in Kansas City.
TWICE AS NICE: Travis Shaw got himself into the team record book with his fourth-inning double. That two-bagger was his fourth in as many games to open the season, making him the first Brewers player to accomplish the feat. Shaw had been tied with Aramis Ramirez (2013), Bill Hall (2009) and Carlos Lee (2005) coming in with a double in each of Milwaukee’s first three games.
CRIME DOESN’T PAY: Piña ranked 10th in the major leagues in defensive WAR a season ago, thanks in large part to a strong throwing arm that helped keep opposing base runners at bay. Piña is off to a great start in that department again this year, gunning down Dexter Fowler trying to steal second base in the third inning and Tommy Pham in the sixth. He’s now cut down 3 of 4 wouldbe base stealers on the season.
WOODRUFF’S WOES: Woodruff was still sporting a nasty bruise on his right triceps on Monday, compliments of a line shot he took off his pitching arm on Friday in San Diego. He made his first appearance since then on Monday and it didn’t go well, as he surrendered the game-clinching three-run homer to DeJong in the sixth. Woodruff pitched 11⁄
3 innings in all in what was likely his last appearance until Friday, when he’s scheduled to join the starting rotation and pitch against the Chicago Cubs.