Brewers 4, Dodgers 14: I'll take a series split

Win: Carlos Frias (3-0)
Loss: Mike Fiers (1-4)

HR: Adam Lind (6), Alex Guerrero (6), Yasmani Grandal 2 (4)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Chart
Boxscore

Look, so, coming into this series the Dodgers were 16-8 and the Brewers were 7-18. With that in mind, and seeing how the Brewers have looked this season and knowing they had to face Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, how many wins would you have expected from the Brewers over a four game series?

The Brewers lost pretty bad on Thursday, but they managed to take a series tie against the Dodgers with new manager Craig Counsell in place. At this point in the season, we can chalk that up as a pretty big success, right? The Dodgers are fantastic, and the Brewers won two out of four. That's pretty good.

I wonder if I would have been as happy with that result if I was asked about it prior to the season. If on April 6 someone came up to me and said, 'The Brewers will win two of four against the Dodgers in early May' I probably would shrug and say, well, that's good enough. Now, it feels like a big win. It's a nice way for Counsell to kick off his managerial career, to be sure.

The game itself wasn't as nice. The Brewers kept the game tied through five innings, but the Dodgers turned it on for 11 runs in the final four frames. Mike Fiers was alright for a while and even had an immaculate inning -- more on that from JP shortly -- but ended up allowing five earned over five innings with eight strikeouts. Jeremy Jeffress and Jonathan Broxton gave up two runs apiece while Rob Wooten also allowed five.

Adam Lind hit his sixth home run of the season while going 2-3 to lead the audience but, yeah, there wasn't much chance the Brewers were going to top the Dodgers after that offensive onslaught.

Up next for the Brewers will be the Cubs again, this time in Miller Park. First pitch Friday is at 7:10 CT.