Milwaukee ace implodes, Brewers fall to Oakland 15-5

Well, Junior Guerra fans — looking at you, Kyle — let’s hope today was a fine tuning prior to opening day. The #2017BrewersAce looked like anything BUT an ace as he gave up 12 runs (7 earned) in only 3.2 innings against the Oakland Athletics. The start brings Guerra’s spring ERA up to 5.93 in 5 games.

The game started well enough, with Guerra only allowing a run on sac fly. Then the second inning rolled by and Guerra fell to pieces, allowing home runs to Yonder Alonso and Max Schrock — that doesn’t seem like a real name, and I’m pretty sure he’s not even a real person — and a double to Marcus Semien before escaping after giving up 5 runs.

In the third, Guerra calmed down a smidge, only allowing two solo home runs to Alonso (again) and Trevor Plouffe.

Then, Guerra struggled again in the 4th, getting two outs but allowing four base runners to reach — one on an error — before being pulled for Taylor Jungmann. Jungmann would immediately give up a double that would bring all of Guerra’s credited base runners home to score, thus putting the exclamation point on his no good, very bad day.

Despite Guerra’s struggles, there were good things to find from this game. Like Eric Thames continuing to heat up as we head into the season, smacking his second double of camp and coming around to score for a run. Or Manny Piña extending his domination of spring training with a 2 for 3 game that included a double. Oh, and Jesus Aguilar hit an extra base hit, drove in a run, yadda yada, water is wet, the sky is blue. If it’s a spring training game, just assume Aguilar did something good with the bat in his hand.

The loss brings Milwaukee down to 14-12. The Crew heads to Cincinnati’s “home” field tomorrow for a 3:05 p.m. contest. Tommy Milone gets the ball for the Brewers. Milone heads into the game with a 3.12 ERA in 8.2 spring innings pitched.