Offense continues to roll as Brewers shut out Marlins, 8-0

Box Score

For the second night in a row, the bats came alive for the Milwaukee Brewers in a big way. The game didn’t start off that way, though. The Brewers made Miami starter Trevor Richards work early, throwing close to 40 pitches while allowing a single and three walks. Unfortunately, the Brewers would scratch across only one run and strand the bases loaded.

The Brewers stranded three more runners in innings two and three, and it was shaping up to be another in what’s been a string of frustrating offensive showings so far this season. That is, until Lorenzo Cain came to bat with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Richards had retired the first two batters of the inning, but ended up walking Cain on six pitches. The next batter to the plate was Christian Yelich, who roped a triple off the wall in right-center to bring Cain home and make it 2-0. Next up was Ryan Braun, who crushed a first-pitch slider over the wall in left-center to bring the score up to 4-0. Travis Shaw followed Braun, and in his bid for reelection as Mayor of Ding Dong City he launched a first pitch fastball at the knees over the Toyota Territory in right center for back-to-back jacks, making it a 5-0 game. Richards would walk Eric Thames and Jonathan Villar to continue the inning, and a wild pitch allowed Thames to score to make it 6-0. The threat was finally ended when Orlando Arcia struck out swinging to strand Villar on third, but not before the Brewers had brought five runs across in the inning.

After a 1-2-3 fifth against reliever Tayron Guerrero, the Brewers scratched out two more runs in the sixth inning against Drew Steckenrider. It started with a Yelich walk, then a line drive single moved runners to first and third. With the infield playing up, Shaw hit a bouncer that got over the third baseman’s head and into the outfield for an RBI single to make it 7-0. Strikeouts by Thames and Villar were the first two outs of the inning, but a ground ball single up the middle from Arcia allowed Braun to score from second base to bring it to 8-0, and that would be all the offense for the night.

Jhoulys Chacin started the contest for Milwaukee on the mound and turned in what was easily his finest outing as a member of the Cream City Nine. The Marlins put two runners on in the first inning while Chacin threw 27 pitches, but he was able to work out of the jam and mostly cruised the rest of the way through six shutout innings. He allowed only four hits and walked three batters while striking out five, lowering his season-long ERA down to 4.18 in the process. He was followed on the mound by Dan Jennings (1 IP, K), Taylor Williams (1.1 IP, 3 K), and Oliver Drake (0.2 IP, K), who each helped to preserve the shutout victory. Milwaukee now boasts the league’s #10 pitching staff in terms of ERA, with a cumulative 3.46 mark; their rotation ranks #15 overall with a 3.89 ERA.

It’s worth mentioning that Orlando Arcia left the game early after singling in the eighth and rolling his ankle on a play while trying to get back to first base. He had to be helped off the field and couldn’t put weight on the ankle, but X-rays came back negative after the game so the injury isn’t expected to be serious.

The win pushes Milwaukee’s record to 12-9 so far in 2018, and they’ll continue their four-game set against the Marlins (5-14) on Saturday night at 6:10 PM CST at Miller Park. Brent Suter (1-2, 4.87 ERA) will get the ball and face off against Jose Urena (0-3, 5.57 ERA).