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Clayton Kershaw got the start for the Dodgers today against the Brewers, and Milwaukee’s offense greeted the future Hall of Famer rather rudely this afternoon at Camelback Ranch. Kolten Wong led the game off for the Cactus Crew and ambushed Kershaw’s first pitch over the fence in right field to give his squad a quick 1-0 lead. The next batter was Luis Urias, competing for the starting shortstop gig, and he too went deep to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead after the first two batters of the game.
Milwaukee tacked on another crooked number in the third inning, and once again it was the top of the lineup that got things started. Wong and Urias singled back-to-back to open the frame and put runners on first and third, then Jackie Bradley, Jr. singled to left to drive home Wong and make it 3-0. The next batter was Keston Hiura and he grounded out, which was enough to score Urias after he had moved up to third on the JBJ single. Following a flyout by Travis Shaw, Omar Narvaez came to the plate and doubled to right to score Bradley, Jr. and make it 5-0.
Josh Lindblom got the start for the Brewers and posted a solid day, working 3.2 scoreless innings (with a re-entry in the fourth) while allowing a pair of hits and three walks against four strikeouts. Lefties Leo Crawford (0.1), Josh Hader (1.0), and Brent Suter (2.0) each worked during the middle innings without allowing a run.
The Brewers tacked on single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, these ones off the highest paid player in baseball in Trevor Bauer. Luke Maile blasted a solo shot in the seventh, and Zach Green — who will see significant playing time with the Brewers at some point this year, I’m calling it — launched a solo dinger of his own in the eighth. That made it 7-0.
In the bottom of the eighth, Justin Topa ran into some trouble. DJ Peters and Elliot Soto started things with consecutive singles, then after a punchout, Matt Davidson knocked a base hit that drove both runners home to make it 7-2. That brought on JP Feyereisen, and the Wisconsin native continued his strong spring as he attempts to win a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. He walked the first batter he faced, but then got a double-play grounder to end the eighth and struck out the side in the ninth to end the ballgame.
With the win, the Brewers improve to 8-7 on the spring. Tomorrow is an off-day before the team returns to action on Thursday afternoon, on the road in Tempe to face off against the Angels.