The Brewers and Rays are often thought of as the Spider-Man meme of baseball teams, different versions of themselves in opposite leagues, small-market teams with tons of development successes. This season, though, both are a bit mired. Tonight, the Rays managed a victory in a game that was disappointing for a bunch of reasons: poor play, umpiring decisions that went the wrong way, and a persistent lack of timely hitting.
Jackson Chourio led things off today, and he was fooled on a 2-2 splitter from Rays starter Zack Littell that went way below the zone… but Chourio made enough contact to put it in play, and he reached on a “swinging bunt.” Brice Turang was next, and he couldn’t make contact when he swung at on one of those 2-2 splitters. With William Contreras at the plate, Chourio stole second base, and Contreras got a hanging slider on 3-1 and smoked it into center field for an RBI single (at a very encouraging 112.4 mph off the bat). Yelich followed by grounding into a double play, but the Brewers were up early in this one.
Jose Quintana started with a quick inning: Yandy Díaz made hard contact on the second pitch Quintana threw but it found Sal Frelick in right field, Christoher Morel struck out on three pitches, and Junior Caminero popped out, and Quintana had a 1-2-3, seven-pitch inning.
Littell looked like he was on his way to a quick three-up three-down inning of his own in the second, but Caleb Durbin reached on a two-out bunt single before Jake Bauers struck out to end the inning. Quintana stayed perfect in the second when he retired Brandon Lowe, Danny Jansen, and Curtis Mead in order, the last on a strikeout.
The Brewers were retired quickly and in order in the top of the third, and Taylor Walls ended Quintana’s perfect game bid with a single to lead off the bottom of the inning. The next batter, José Caballero, hit what should have been a single to center field, but Chourio bizarrely overran it and it got by him (a bad moment for Chourio, who has generally looked good in center). That allowed Walls to score from first and Caballero to reach third with no outs, but Quintana got Chandler Simpson to hit a comebacker for the first out while holding the runner, he struck out Díaz for the second out, and Morel flew out to Chourio for the last out. Quintana escaped what was an inauspicious start to the inning with just one run across.
Milwaukee got their own man to third with no outs in the fourth when Contreras walked to lead off the inning and Yelich followed with a single, putting runners on the corners. Rhys Hoskins struck out for the first out, and Frelick fell behind but battled back to a 2-2 count, fouled off several pitches, and finally reached on catcher’s interference. That gave Durbin a chance with the bases loaded, and he hit a ground ball that wasn’t hit hard enough for a double play, so Durbin was retired at first but Contreras scored to give the Brewers back their lead. Milwaukee still had two runners in scoring position with two outs, but Bauers struck out for the second time and the threat passed. After three-and-a-half, it was Brewers 2, Rays 1.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Rays tied it back up when Quintana left a sinker right down the middle of the plate and Lowe punished him for it, his fifth homer of the season. Quintana worked around a two-out Mead single to finish the inning with the game tied.
Chourio knocked a one-out single in the top of the fifth and (after Turang flew out) stole his second base of the game, but the inning ended when a sharp fly ball from Contreras was caught a few feet in front of the right field wall. Quintana walked Caballero to start the bottom of the inning, but Milwaukee got a double play against the “fastest man in baseball,” Chandler Simpson, to erase the leadoff runner. Díaz grounded out a few pitches later, and it remained 2-2 after five.
Hoskins picked up a one-out single in the sixth, but Frelick and Durbin had back-to-back pop outs to end the inning. Quintana entered the bottom of the sixth still at only 61 pitches, but he walked Morel to lead off the inning (ball four, on a 3-2 count, could have gone either way) and Caminero knocked a base hit through the middle of the infield (in just the right spot) to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Three of Quintana’s first four pitches to Lowe were breaking pitches that were about a foot outside, but he got him to fly out to left for the first out (with Morel advancing to third on Bauers’ questionable arm).
That was the end of the line for Quintana, who looked good for most of the game but left it in a jam. Murphy would turn at that point to Nick Mears, who has been put in a whole bunch of these spots lately, this one a tie game with runners on the corners and one out. Mears came in looking sharp: he struck out Jansen on four pitches and got ahead of Mead, but then some excitement on the bases led to a series of unfortunate events: Contreras threw to second base when Caminero tried to steal, after which Morel took off for home. Turang, holding the ball at second base with Caminero in a rundown, threw over to third base to force Morel back, and the third base umpire ruled that Durbin obstructed the runner, awarding him home base.
That’s the second time in a week that the Brewers have been on the wrong end of this call, which could potentially be just kind of the way it is, but the Brewers were on the wrong end of this call not being made several times earlier in the season, and Pat Murphy wasn’t going to sit there and take it. Murphy was tossed after letting the third-base ump hear it, but the Rays were ahead, 3-2. It was an unfair result for Mears, who was electric.
Contreras picked Caminero off second base a couple pitches later, a call which Tampa challenged unsuccessfully, and that ended the inning. Littell was replaced in the top of the seventh by lefty Mason Montgomery, and he struck out pinch hitter Daz Cameron, induced a groundout from Ortiz, and struck out Chourio.
Grant Anderson entered in the bottom of the seventh and Mead reached to lead off on what was ruled an error on Durbin (it was a pretty hard-hit ball, could have gone either way). Anderson got a pop-up in foul territory from Walls that Contreras dropped, and Anderson walked him on the next pitch—more sloppy baseball. Caballero tried to bunt (even on 0-2) and Hoskins picked it up and threw aggressively to third—it was a bad throw, but Durbin, perhaps atoning for his error to start the inning, made a great pick to save what would probably have been a run. Simpson then flew out to shallow left, and Anderson had a way out of the inning; he got squeezed on an 0-1 pitch that should have been strike two, but he got Díaz to ground out to end a scoreless inning despite the poor defense.
Could the offense respond? Tampa brought in right hander Cole Sulser for the top of the eighth, and Turang started things with an eight-pitch walk. Contreras struck out and Yelich grounded out—he was lucky to avoid a double play, but that did get Turang to second base with two out for Hoskins. Finally, a Brewer came up with a clutch late hit, as Hoskins lined a single into left that scored Turang from second to tie the game. Andruw Monasterio got in for his first action back in the majors as a pinch runner for Hoskins, and Sulser temporarily lost the zone, as Frelick walked on four pitches. Durbin, the next batter, got a good pitch to hit and put a charge into it, but he didn’t quite get it and it was caught on the warning track for the third out.
Morel led off the bottom of the eighth with a base hit off of Milwaukee’s new pitcher Jared Koenig, the fourth straight inning that Tampa Bay had the leadoff man aboard. For the second time, with a runner on first, Caminero hit a groundball that could have been a double play but that instead found its way through the infield and the Brewers were in trouble again. Koenig struck out Lowe (on a check swing that Lowe didn’t think should have been a strike) for the first out. Jansen fell behind 0-2, worked it back to 3-2, fouled off a 3-2 pitch, and then walked to load the bases with one out.
A mound visit from Chris Hook preceded Koenig’s showdown with Curtis Mead, who was 1-for-3 on the night. Mead swung hard at the first pitch but missed, he fouled off the second pitch, and then he also struck out on a check swing on the third pitch for the second out. Koenig was one batter away from wriggling off the hook, but a long at-bat with Walls ended with a walk (Koenig surely won’t forget the second pitch, which appeared to clip the zone but was called ball one). That was Koenig’s 29th and final pitch, and Joel Payamps came in with the bases loaded and a one-run deficit.
If the Brewers had any hope of winning this game, Payamps needed to get the next batter out. That batter would be a pinch hitter, Jonathan Aranda, who has been one of the best hitters in the league this year, but Payamps struck him out fairly easily and the Brewers would only need one in the ninth to tie.
The pitcher in the ninth was righty Eric Orze, and he got things started against Cameron, who hit a blooper into left that nearly fell but which was snagged on a sliding catch by Simpson. Isaac Collins came in as a pinch hitter for Ortiz, but he struck out looking, and Milwaukee was down to its last out in the form of Jackson Chourio. He jumped on the first pitch and hit a grounder through the right side for a single, his third of the game, but Turang grounded out and the Rays won.
It was a frustrating game, one that was fairly well pitched but in which the Brewers couldn’t get the offense going and made key defensive mistakes at bad moments. The team and its fans may feel hard done by the obstruction call that gave Tampa their third run, but a better played game with a couple more big hits would have rendered it moot.
Hoskins had two hits, including the game-tying one in the top of the eighth, Chourio had those three singles, and Contreras reached twice, but extra-base hits remained elusive for a team that has been struggling mightily to hit with any power lately. Quintana was charged with three runs but only one was earned, with the fourth run charged to Koenig. Mears looked great again, Anderson had a scoreless inning, and Payamps was excellent for his one batter faced.
Milwaukee will try to bounce back tomorrow afternoon at 3:10 p.m. when Tobias Myers takes on Taj Bradley. (There are storms in the forecast tomorrow evening, so we’ll see how it goes.)