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Winning Pitcher: Mike Fiers
Losing Pitcher: Zack Greinke
SV: Francisco Rodriguez
HR: Khris Davis (19), Adrian Gonzalez (17), Carlos Gomez (18)
It was something of a homecoming for both team's starters. Zack Greinke was making his second start at Miller Park since being traded way back in 2012. Mike Fiers was making his first start in the major leagues since ineffectiveness, injury, and personal tragedy saw him demoted to the minors in the early part of 2013, before a broken arm derailed his season entirely. It didn't go swimmingly for one of them.
In the second inning a single by Scooter Gennett allowed Khris Davis to put the Brewers up 2-0 with a towering opposite field home run. The kid is strong! It took a few more innings for Gomez to hit his home run. It was a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning putting the Brewers up 3-1. Aramis Ramirez tacked on another run with a liner to center.
In total, Zack Greinke pitched six innings allowing 1 walk, 8 hits including 2 home runs, and giving up 4 earned runs. He struck out 6 batters.
Mike Fiers only allowed 1 base runner in the first three innings. After retiring 8 in a row he issued a walk to Greinke. He induced a ground out in the next at-bat. Adrian Gonzalez continued to plague the Brewers though. In the 4th inning he too launched a towering shot to right field that at the time brought the Dodgers within a run.
In the sixth inning Dee Gordon reached base on a single. Fiers did everything in his power to hold the runner, including missing a pick off by a hair. On the second actual pitch to the batter, Gordon took off only to be thrown out by Jonathan Lucroy. Fiers got Yasiel Puig to pop up and that's how the inning ended. Ultimately not that eventful, it was still a lot of fun to watch.
Mike Fiers would pitch 2 more innings without incident. He threw 101 pitches in 8 innings with 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 3 hits, and an impressive number of ground balls (55.0 GB%). He only allowed the 1 run on the home run from Gonzalez. Not a single other Dodger reached second base. It was a supremely excellent start.
Francisco Rodriguez came in for the save in the ninth. It went: Walk, fly out, fielder's choice, bloop single just out of the reach of Gennett, ground out. Save recorded, Brewers won.
The Brewers take the first two games to win the series. If they want to sweep the Dodger's they're really goin gto earn it. Tomorrow they have a tall order as Jimmy Nelson takes the mound against Clayton Kershaw. Start time is 1:10 pm CT.
Other notes:
- The Cardinals were again trounced by the Orioles in a 10-3 loss. They drop to 3 games back of the Brewers.
- The Pirates were losing in the bottom of the 9th at the time of publishing. Should they lose, they'll drop to 2.5 games back of the Brewers.
- The Reds were also losing. They'd fall to 6 games back of the Brewers.
- Hanley Ramirez missed another game. Nothing is official, but it seems like a DL stint is inevitable.
