Brewers drop series finale to Orioles, 8-4, in extra innings

Box Score

Entering today’s game, the Brewers had a crazy track record over the last several weeks — whoever won the first two games in a series lost the series finale. That stretch included:

Brewers lose two, win finale against Cardinals (April 25-27)

Brewers win two, lose finale against White Sox (April 29-May 1)

Brewers lose two, win finale against Cubs (May 2-4)

Brewers win two, lose finale against Astros (May 5-7)

Brewers lose two, win finale against Rays (May 9-11)

Brewers lose two, win finale against Guardians (May 12-14)

Brewers lose two, win finale against Twins (May 16-18)

After the Brewers won on Monday and Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles, they were just an Orioles’ win away from extending that stretch to eight straight series. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, that’s exactly what ended up happening.

The game got off to a slow start, as the O’s and Brewers exchanged zeros for the first three innings. The Orioles picked up a walk and hit by pitch but nothing else, while the Brewers threatened with runners in scoring position in both the second and third but were unable to push any runs across.

Baltimore broke through against Chad Patrick in the fourth, as Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle, and Ryan O’Hearn hit three consecutive singles to score the first run and put runners at the corners with no outs. Patrick zoned in from there, striking out Cedric Mullins and Emmanuel Rivera before inducing a flyout from Heston Kjerstad to escape the jam.

Rhys Hoskins led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and moved to second on a groundout, but he was left stranded as Tomoyuki Sugano was through four scoreless frames.

Patrick allowed a two-out, bases empty double to Adley Rutschman in the fifth, and that was the end of the day for him. He allowed one run on four hits and one walk with seven strikeouts across 4 2⁄3 innings. Rob Zastryzny struck out Henderson to get out of the inning with deficit still at 1-0.

Milwaukee finally got a run using their speed in the fifth, as Caleb Durbin doubled and scored from second on a groundout, as he was in motion on the pitch. I’ll let you see it to believe it.

With the game now tied, the Orioles tried to retake the lead against Zastryzny in the sixth. They put together a pair of one-out singles, which led to Grant Anderson taking over. Anderson escaped the inning with a pair of groundouts, keeping the score 1-1.

Hoskins hit his seventh homer of the season — and second in two days — into Milwaukee’s bullpen in the bottom of the sixth, putting the Crew up 2-1 as they had their first lead of the afternoon.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last.

Nick Mears worked a perfect seventh and returned for the eighth, but he couldn’t keep Baltimore off the board. He allowed a single and a double to put runners at second and third with two outs. Mullins hit a game-tying sacrifice fly, and with two outs, Pat Murphy gave the ball over to Joel Payamps. For the second consecutive day, Payamps struggled, walking Rivera and giving up a go-ahead single to Kjerstad, giving the Orioles a 3-2 lead after 7 1⁄2 innings.

I’ll just say that I don’t have confidence in Payamps, and I haven’t for some time.

The Brewers went down in order against Gregory Soto in the eighth, though Jackson Chourio made some loud contact and Christian Yelich was nearly hit in the face by a first-pitch sinker at 98 mph.

Easton McGee took the ninth for the Crew in his first appearance this year and just his third MLB appearance overall, and it went about as well as could be expected as he retired Jackson Holliday, Rutschman, and Henderson in order.

Félix Bautista — who gave up a homer to Hoskins last night — came in for the save set to face Hoskins, Sal Frelick, and Eric Haase. After Hoskins went down on strikes, Frelick reached on a four-pitch walk, putting the tying run on with one out.

Haase flew out, leaving the game in the hands of Jake Bauers. He drew a five-pitch walk to put the tying run at second and the winning run at first. In a 2-2 count, Durbin came through with one of the most clutch hits of the season, lining a ball into right to push Frelick across for a 3-3 tie. Isaac Collins replaced the struggling Joey Ortiz at the plate with a chance to win the game, but he’d ground out as this one headed to extras.

Trevor Megill took the 10th for Milwaukee, and Mountcastle grounded out to begin the inning, pushing Henderson over to third with one out. He would score one batter later as O’Hearn singled, and O’Hearn then moved to third himself on a Mullins’ double to put runners at second and third with one out.

I, for one, cannot wait for Mullins to get out of town —he went 4-for-11 this series with multiple clutch hits.

Luckily for Megill, he was able to get a grounder back to the mound from Rivera, and he threw home to pick up the second out. With runners at the corners and two outs, Megill worked his way out of the inning as Kjerstad flew out to center, meaning Milwaukee’s ghost runner at second represented the tying run.

Brice Turang flew out to center to begin the bottom of the 10th, but Chourio followed with a game-tying single. The throw was cut off and he was caught trying to advance to second, but the damage was done as Milwaukee was back to even at 4-4.

That was the last time this game would be particularly close, as the Orioles picked up three straight hits — including a three-run homer by Rutschman — in the 11th to take an 8-4 lead against Tyler Alexander. That’s all they’d need, as the Crew couldn’t push anything across in the bottom of the inning.

It was an anticlimactic finish to an exciting game, as Milwaukee fails to push back to .500 and instead settles for a 24-26 record after a 3-3 homestand.

The bullpen faltered in the loss, giving up seven runs (six earned) over the final 6 1⁄3 innings in the loss. Hoskins, Durbin, and Chourio each picked up three hits, but that accounted for six of the team’s seven hits, with Bauers getting the other.

The Brewers now head to Pittsburgh for four games beginning Thursday night in their first non-interleague matchup since battling the Cubs at the beginning of May. First pitch is at 5:40 p.m. with the famed TBD starting for the Brewers and Mike Burrows on the mound for the Pirates.

Brewers drop series finale to Orioles, 8-4, in extra innings

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