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Winning Pitcher: Kyle Lohse
Losing Pitcher: Ervin Santana
HR: Mark Reynolds (9), Carlos Gomez (10)
It's been a tough going for Brewers fans lately. The first inning was a breath of fresh air. Carlos Gomez led of with a single and Scooter Gennett sent him to third with a double. Ryan Braun's first pitch pop up was unable to drive in Gomez. It felt a little deflating. Ervin Santana was careful to Jonathan Lucroy and ended up walking him. The Blind Batsman Mark Reynolds used his super echolocation to absolutely crush a FREAKING GRAND SLAM to left field. That too was on a first pitch offering. It most definitely did not feel deflating. Jean Segura slapped a single and Lyle Overbay drew a walk. Logan Schafer flew out and Kyle Lohse lined out. When it was all said and done the Brewers batted around, scored 4 runs, and ran Santana's pitch count to 31 pitches.
In the fourth inning Santana sliced up the first two batters he faced. Then Kyle Lohse of all people drew a walk. Gomez didn't take long to send a fly ball to deep center and out for a 2-run home run. Gennett singled, but the inning ended after the struggling Ryan Braun grounded out for his third out of the night.
Nothing much happened in the 6th inning, but Lohse did bloop in a single and that's always fun. Gomez followed that up with an infield single. Scooter grounded to third and the runners advanced but again, Ryan Braun was unable to put together a good at-bat. He struck out swinging at two back-to-back pitches way out of the strike zone. He just looks lost right now. (For what it's worth he did hit a single and advance to second on a bobble in the ninth inning)
Lohse gave up a run in the first inning on back-to-back two out doubles by Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton, but that was it. He was on top of his game. He ended up pitching 8 innings with 4 hits, 0 walks, 1 earned run, and 8 strikeouts using 103 pitches. It was excellent.
Francisco Rodriguez hadn't pitched since the last time Lohse started so Ron Roenicke put him in for the ninth inning. You don't want to have a reliever go too long without an appearance so I didn't really have much of a problem with the decision. Still, with a 5 run lead I think I would have liked to see Wei-Chung Wang come in to try and give the entire bullpen the day off. It doesn't really matter though. All that matters is that K-Rod pitched a scoreless inning and the Brewers snapped their losing streak. The season record now sits at 28-19.
Tomorrow the Brewers look to tie the series as Matt Garza faces the android named Aaron Harang. Start time is 6:10 pm CT.
