Brewers rally in ninth, but fall to Rangers 6-5

WP: Chris Martin (1-0)
LP: Ernesto Frieri (2-1)

HR: Eric Sogard (1), Dustin Houle (1)

Box Score

Trailing 5-1 entering the ninth inning, the Brewers put together an impressive rally to tie the game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to prevent the loss tonight.

The Brewers fell behind early today as Brent Suter got the start. In four innings of work, he allowed four runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and a walk. After recording two outs to start the game, Suter allowed three singles and a double to the next four banners, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead. The Rangers added onto that in the second with a leadoff home run from Ryan Rua to make is 4-0. Suter settled down a bit after that, only allowing two hits for the rest of his day, but the damage was done.

Michael Brady followed Suter from the bullpen and allowed a leadoff home run to Nomar Mazara to increase the Rangers lead to 5-0. Meanwhile, Rangers starter Doug Fister kept the Brewers starters down, only allowing three hits in his five innings of work.

After Doug Fister’s day was done, Keone Kela came on to pitch for the Rangers, and Eric Sogard hit a leadoff home run to put the Brewers on the board at 5-1 in the sixth. The score would hold there until the ninth inning. A single by Trent Grisham and double from Jake Gatewood put two runners on base, then Jake Hager hit a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 5-2. Nate Orf got on base after being hit by a pitch, and Tyrone Taylor struck out for the second out of the inning. The Brewers were down to their final batter, but Dustin Houle hit a three-run home run to tie the game at 5-5.

Ernesto Frieri came in for the ninth to try to get it to extra innings. Unfortunately, he was only able to record one out. He issued a leadoff walk to Preston Beck, then Jurickson Profar singled and an error by Tyrone Taylor put runners at second and third. After intentionally walking Darwin Barney to load the bases, Dustin Hood hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the winning run for the Rangers.

Overall, it was a quiet day for the Brewers offense. No hitter recorded more than 1 hit in the game. Houle and Sogard had home runs for the Brewers, which accounted for most of the offense. Unfortunately, the offense did not record a walk today, which further added to their issues.

Corey Knebel, Matt Albers, and J.J. Hoover also pitched out of the bullen for the Brewers today. All had scoreless appearances, though none were clean. Knebel allowed two walks, Albers a hit and a walk, and Hoover allowed two hits.

The Brewers are back in action tomorrow as they travel to Goodyear to face the Reds. Wade Miley starts against Michael Lorenzen in the game. First pitch is at 3:05 pm.