Brewers fall to Diamondbacks 5-1, Brett Anderson leaves game early with knee discomfort

Box Score

This wasn’t a night to remember for the Brewers. After 20 days without a win, the Diamondbacks broke that tonight against the Brewers. Not only that, but one of their starting pitchers went down with an injury.

The game started well enough. Kolten Wong led off the game with a double to right, and Wong advanced to third on a groundout by Christian Yelich. Avisail Garcia then drove in Wong, giving the Brewers an early 1-0 lead. The Brewers did get another runner on base in the first with an Omar Narvaez walk, but Willy Adames struck out to end the inning.

The bottom of the first went well, with Brett Anderson starting with a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. A quick top of the second followed, with Luis Urias leading off with a single but that was erased when Brett Anderson grounded into a double play to end the inning. That at-bat ended up being the catalyst for what followed. Anderson went back out for the bottom of the second and he wasn’t himself. The first five batters reached base on singles. Pavin Smith hit the third single that tied the game at 1-1, then Stephen Vogt’s single (fifth by the Diamondbacks of the inning) scored Josh Reddick, though Avisail Garcia got Smith trying to score with a good throw to Narvaez. However, after that at-bat, Anderson had to come out of the game as his knee was hurting. After the game, Anderson said that he thinks he injured it during his at bat in the top of the second inning.

Trevor Richards came in after that to try to keep the score at 2-1, but he walked Merrill Kelly and allowed another single to Ketel Marte that brought in another run, making it a 3-1 game. Richards then struck out the next two batters to end the inning. For Anderson, his day ended with three runs and five hits allowed in 1.1 innings pitched with just one strikeout.

Richards kept the Diamondbacks off the board in the third, then Hoby Milner took over in the fourth. He couldn’t keep the game at 3-1, as the Diamondbacks scored two runs on a walk, sac bunt, single, double, and RBI groundout. The fifth was better as he struck out two and allowed a single, but that was erased when Narvaez caught Nick Ahmed stealing with a good throw to Luis Urias. Milner’s day ended with two runs allowed on three hits in two innings.

One of the positives of the night came from the MLB debut of Jake Cousins. He got the sixth and seventh innings and was strong, allowing just one walk and a hit by pitch while striking out five batters in those two innings. That performance should keep him in the majors for a little while. Hunter Strickland took the eighth inning and did walk two, but kept the Diamondbacks from scoring.

Unfortunately for the Brewers offense, they just couldn’t get anything else going in the game. Give a lot of credit to Merrill Kelly, who recovered from that first inning to pitch seven strong innings, allowing just the one run on five hits, with a walk and five strikeouts. Noe Ramirez and Joakim Soria covered the last two innings for the Diamondbacks, allowing just one walk between them. No Brewers batter reached base more than once, with five hits and two walks scattered between the starters.

The series continues tomorrow in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. Freddy Peralta is back on the mound as he faces Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks. First pitch is set for 8:40 pm.