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An eventful day (Scooter Gennett claimed off of waivers by Cincinnati, Jesus Aguilar making the 25 man roster) was capped by a spirited Brewers comeback for a walk-off win in Maryvale over the near-World Champion Cleveland Indians, 13-12.
The win snapped a Brewer five game losing streak, and brought them even with the Indians at 15-15 in Cactus League play. (Does the Brewers’ tie with the Cubs put them ahead of or behind the Tribe?)
Milwaukee blew a 7-4 lead by giving up 3 seventh inning runs and 5 eighth inning runs to trail 12-7 entering the bottom of the eighth, but a 5 spot of their own tied things up in the eighth, and they walked off the win on a one out single from UWM alum Mitch Ghelfi, whose pinch hit plated Hernan Perez with the gamer.
Junior Guerra had a second consecutive bad outing, allowing 9 hits and 4 earnies in 3.2 innings, walking 2 and fanning 2. Juan Marinez also was touched up, giving up the 3 in the seventh, and Jacob Barnes served up two gopher balls in the eighth to account for 4 of the 5 runs. Good pitching news: Neftali Feliz pitched a scoreless fifth, Carlos Torres a scoreless sixth, and Corey Knebel had a perfect ninth with two strikeouts to earn the win.
For Milwaukee, Orlando Arcia connected for his second and third homers of the spring, in the second and fourth innings; Ryan Braun continued to heat up with a four-bagger of his own in the fifth with nobody on; Eric Sogard launched his first of the spring with one on in the sixth: and #cactuscupmvp Jesus Aguilar’s three-run bomb in the bottom of the eighth capped the five run rally to tie things at 12, setting up Ghelfi’s heroics. (BTW, Ghelfi slashed .326/.387/.439, OPS .826 at catcher for the T-Rats last season...hmmmm)
Arcia ended his day 2 for 3 with 3 runs scored and those 2 solo homers. He’s up to a .254 batting average with a .794 OPS. Man, I’ll take those numbers. Sogard was also 2 for 3, and he scored twice and knocked in 2. He is at .286 and a .841 OPS. Unfortunately for Sogard, both he and Ivan De Jesus were informed that they won’t make the Opening Day roster.
The Brewers host the Angels tomorrow afternoon in their last game in Arizona. They head back to Milwaukee for a pair of exhibitions Friday and Saturday against the White Sox to close out spring training. Matt Shoemaker will go for LA of CAL, while Zach Davies gets his final tune-up before the Rockies come to town to open the season next week.