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It’s an interleague weekend for the Milwaukee Brewers as they take on their other interstate rivals on the road in Minnesota, and game one pitted Eric Lauer against the well-traveled veteran Andrew Albers. Milwaukee’s left-hander found himself in a hole early, getting into trouble with two outs in the first inning. Rob Refsnyder started the rally with a single, and then Josh Donaldson annihilated an 88 MPH cutter for a two-run homer to make the score 2-0.
Those wound up being the game-winning RBI as the Brewers’ offense could not get much of anything going against the 35 year old who has pitched in Japan, Korea, Venezuela, and in the CanAm and Atlantic Leagues in addition to his parts of five MLB seasons and eight affiliated minor league campaigns. Milwaukee didn’t record their first hit until two outs in the third inning and only once put more than one runner on base. They had Albers on the ropes a little in the fourth; Christian Yelich singled to lead off, then Rowdy Tellez singled with two outs and Manny Pina was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The would-be rally was stifled, however, when Jace Peterson grounded out to shortstop.
Albers worked 5.1 innings with three hits and one walk allowed, punching out three while keeping the Brewers off the board. Lauer battled his way through 4.2 innings without allowing anymore than the two first inning runs, scattering six hits and walking two to go along with six strikeouts. He walked Donaldson with two outs in the fifth, then was pulled at 102 pitches.
Jake Cousins, Hunter Strickland, and Daniel Norris each posted scoreless appearances to finish out the game on Milwaukee’s side of things, while Jorge Alcala, Daniel Coulombe, Tyler Duffey, and Alex Colome combined to close out the shutout of the Cream City Nine. The series continues at 7:10 PM central on Saturday night, with Adrian Houser scheduled to face Charlie Barnes.