No sweep for the Brewers as Rangers win, 1-0

Mike Minor would have looked really nice in a Brewers uniform. There was talk at the trade deadline as well as prior to the 2019 season of trading for the veteran left-hander. His changeup had the Brewers’ hitters off-balance the entire game. His command was impeccable. His completed 8 innings giving up just 4 hits and no runs as he struck out 11 Brewers’ hitters. The results were not good as the Brewers lose this one by a score of 1-0.

The Brewers did trade for a few players at the trade deadline, and one acquisition was Jordan Lyles. He was just about as good as Mike Minor in this one. He gave up just 1 run while pitching 7 innings and striking out 9. Thus far, Lyles has been excellent for Milwaukee.

As I alluded to, this was a pitcher’s duel between two starting pitchers that were on top of their game. Mike Minor and Jordan Lyles had hitters befuddled for much of the day. There just was not much going on offensively, and the game went by quickly.

The top of the seventh was the bad luck inning for the Brewers. Lyles walked the first hitter, Willie Calhoun, with a curveball that just missed below the strike zone. Lyles had Calhoun fooled, but he just missed on a 3-2 count. The next hitter was Rougned Odor. He hit a line drive that was headed right for Yasmani Grandal’s glove at first. If Grandal had caught the ball, he could have stepped on first base, and a double play would have been the result. Instead the ball tailed on Grandal and went off of his glove and into foul territory in right field. The result was a double for Odor and second and third for Texas with no one out.

Lyles did an outstanding job of reducing damage. He struck out Delino DeShields. Isiah Kiner-Falefa flew out to Trent Grisham. Calhoun tagged and scored on the play. Lyles next struck out Jeff Mathis looking, keeping the score to just 1-0 in the seventh.

Alex Claudio replaced Lyles in the eighth. He was able to pitch a scoreless inning. Jeremy Jeffress took the ninth. He shut Texas down in order. It was up to the Brewers’ offense to do something late.

In the bottom of the eighth, it looked like the Brewers would do something. Hanging a fastball up, Hernan Perez doubled down the left field line to lead off the inning off Minor. That brought pinch hitter Christian Yelich to the plate. Minor struck him out. He also got Lorenzo Cain to ground out and Keston Hiura to fly out.

The Rangers replaced Minor with Jose Leclerc in the bottom of the ninth. With the heart of the order coming up, and Mike Minor out, the Brewers’ had to be optimistic of their chances. Unfortunately Leclerc was pumping fastballs at 99 mph on the corner and throwing a curveball that left Brewer hitters buckling at the knees. The results were not good. Mike Moustakas grounded out to second. Ryan Braun popped out to the shortstop. Yasmani Grandal took strike three as a curveball caught him looking to end the game.

The Brewers have the day off on Monday. They return to action on Tuesday as the Minnesota Twins come to Miller Park. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 CT. The game will be broadcast on WTMJ and televised Fox Sports Wisconsin.