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WP: Mike Fiers (1-2)
LP: Zack Greinke (2-1)
SV: Jim Henderson (9)
MVP: Mike Fiers (.206 WPA)
LVP: Hiram Burgos (-.161 WPA)
Zack Greinke returned to Miller Park for the first time tonight since being traded to the Angels last summer. In case you didn't remember, Greinke never lost a game in Miller Park as a Brewer. The Brewers lost games when he started, but he never recorded a loss in Miller Park, which is a pretty amazing oddity among stats that shouldn't really be considered stats.
Tonight, Greinke finally recorded his loss at Miller Park.
The Brewers struck first tonight in the first inning on a Jonathan Lucroy single to center. Greinke started off the first inning with two quick outs against Norichika Aoki and Jean Segura before walking Ryan Braun. Aramis Ramirez followed the walk with a single to put two runners on for Lucroy.
Lucroy's single gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead that Hiram Burgos hung on to until the fourth inning. With one out in the top of the fourth, Greinke tied the game with an RBI single that scored Skip Schumaker from second. The Dodgers proceeded to load the bases and score their second run on a single up the middle from Nick Punto. After the Punto single, Ron Roenicke had seen enough and pulled Burgos after only 88 pitches in favor of Mike Fiers.
Burgos just didn't pitch well this evening. In both the second and third inning, Burgos put multiple runners on base and made escaping each inning a chore. He has really struggled since his disastrous three inning, ten-run start in Cincinnati and you have to wonder if his confidence is now shaken.
With the bases loaded and only one out, Fiers was able to take control of the inning and keep the Brewers deficit to only one run. It was a particularly impressive inning from Fiers tonight to enter with the bases loaded and proceed to strike out Adrian Gonzalez and get Matt Kemp to roll over to Aramis Ramirez to end the inning.
The Brewers trailed until the fifth inning when they were able to string together five consecutive hits. Jean Segura led off the inning with a triple and was followed by singles from Braun, Ramirez, and Lucroy. With the bases loaded and no outs, Carlos Gomez hit a ground rule double over the head of Carl Crawford in left field to give the Brewers a 4-2 lead. Yuniesky Betancourt added another run on an RBI groundout to the left side that scored Lucroy from third.
Fiers, Mike Gonzalez, John Axford, Brandon Kintzler and Jim Henderson combined to pitch 5.2 scoreless innings tonight. The Brewers bullpen hasn't given up a run since last Thursday against the Pirates.
After splitting the first two games, the Brewers will attempt to pull out the final game of their series against the Dodgers at 1:10 p.m. The Brewers will send Wily Peralta (3-4, 5.94 ERA) to the mound to take on Hyun-Jin Ryu (4-2, 3.42 ERA) for the Dodgers.