The Brewers dropped the series opener to the Cleveland Guardians, 5-0. Milwaukee has now lost four out of their last five games. With today’s loss, the Crew are also back to two games under .500.
Not a lot happened for either team in the first few innings. The highlight of those first three frames was a Christian Yelich double with two outs in the first, which he crushed — 112.5-mph exit velocity. Yelich had a rough couple of weeks before the Rays series (he was still hitting .171 in the month of May coming into today’s game), but now has five hits in the last four games.
While warming up in the top of the fourth, Guardians starter Ben Lively started experiencing forearm tightness. Manager Stephen Vogt pulled Lively in favor of Jakob Junis. After Junis retired William Contreras and Brice Turang to start the inning, the back end of the Brewers’ order mounted a rally. Rhys Hoskins singled, and Jake Bauers hit a double that would have probably scored anyone faster than Hoskins. Junis then walked Andruw Monasterio, loading the bases for Caleb Durbin. Durbin swung at the 0-1 offering and hit a two-hopper to Jose Ramirez, who got the forceout at second, keeping the score at 0-0.
That was the last frame in which the game would remain tied. After Ramirez singled, Freddy Peralta walked the bases loaded. With two outs and the bases loaded, Gabriel Arias hit what probably should have been a flyout (per Adam McCalvy, Statcast gave it a 95% catch probability).
Chourio must have thought he was Josh Jacobs, because he decided to run a wheel route instead of turning his hips and running back. I could hear my Little League coach screaming “first step back!” in my head. Chourio is fast, so he was able to recover and make a play on the ball. Unfortunately, he still missed the catch, allowing all three baserunners to score. Peralta then got Nolan Jones to ground out to end the inning, but the damage was done. It was a frustrating defensive effort from Chourio, who, to be fair, probably wouldn’t have even been in center if it weren’t for Garrett Mitchell being on the IL and Sal Frelick still recovering from a knee injury.
The play made me think of a Miguel Amaya blooper that Chourio misplayed against the Cubs last year, allowing a run to score in a game that Peralta and the Brewers eventually lost in extras. Peralta apparently had a talk with Chourio after, reminding him “that he’s here because he’s great … remember you got paid before you take (sic) one AB, and remember what that means.”
Chourio is still going to be great — one mishap does not make or break a superstar. I have faith that he’ll learn from this, and it’s not like this happens all the time. He’s young, and growing pains happen. Peralta also walked the bases loaded, so you can’t put all three runs solely on Chourio.
It is, however, disheartening that Chourio again misplayed a ball in the outfield that ended up hurting the Brewers, especially given that it was Peralta again on the mound, and that Peralta made a big deal out of making sure Chourio learned from the first mishap. Peralta is right — Chourio got paid tens of millions before he’d ever played a game. He doesn’t need to be prime Barry Bonds every game, and he probably shouldn’t be playing center anyway. However, with a contract like that comes the expectation that he, at the very least, will put in the work to fix mental errors like misplaying a ball that should have been the third out.
In the top of the fifth, the Brewers put two runners on (courtesy of a Frelick single and a Yelich walk), but Contreras grounded into a double play. In the seventh, Chourio singled and stole second, but Contreras struck out looking. Cleveland got a couple more insurance runs on a Kyle Manzardo single and a Carlos Santana walk with the bases loaded, bringing the game to its final score.
Bryan Hudson, making his first appearance since being called back up before the Rays series just a few days ago, walked four batters (one intentional) in 1 2⁄3 innings. He didn’t look great, but was also far from the biggest problem tonight. Milwaukee went 0-for-6 with RISP and left 11 on base. They outhit the Guardians (7-6), but they couldn’t out-clutch them.
I know it’s subjective, but it felt like the vibes were off today, like they have been for much of the season. That may be due to the absence of Willy Adames (a key part of the clubhouse for the last few seasons), the loss of Ueck, or just the product of injuries and a ballclub where key players are underperforming expectations. Call me an optimist, or an idiot, but too much is going wrong right now for things to stay like this. Yes, this loss really sucked, and it’s been a rough last five games in general. We’re also a month and a half into the season — I’m not pressing the panic button yet. Still a whole lot of time for things to get better.
The Crew will look to bounce back tomorrow, the second in a three-game set. Quinn Priester will get the ball for the Crew, facing off against Logan Allen.
Also — Freddy Peralta became the fourth player to reach 1,000 strikeouts with the Brewers. Congratulations, Freddy, you’re officially in the Brewer record books. We love you, ace.
First pitch is at 5:10 p.m. CT again. The game will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.