Brewers lineup quiet in 4-0 loss to Dodgers

Box Score

The Brewers have been among baseball’s weakest lineups against teams with winning records, and the Dodgers have the best winning percentage and arguably the best pitching staff in baseball.

Those two factors combined for a quiet night from the Milwaukee lineup on Monday when the Brewers fell 4-0 in the first of seven games against Los Angeles in 10 days. The Crew managed just four hits and none after the fourth inning.

The pitching staff did a capable job against a potent Dodgers lineup. Freddy Peralta did not have his best fastball, picking up just three whiffs with his heater, but his breaking stuff was effective enough to gut through four innings. He allowed just one run, a solo shot off the bat of Freddie Freeman in the first inning.

Peralta did issue four walks and battled his control in the fourth inning, but he struck out Cody Bellinger with the bases loaded to end his outing. His final line was four innings pitched with one run allowed on two hits, four walks and three strikeouts.

Peter Strzelecki was first out of the bullpen. Some defensive miscues led to an unearned run on his ledger. Mookie Betts reached on a throwing error by Willy Adames and later scored on a sacrifice fly, making it 2-0.

The Dodgers added two more runs against Hoby Milner in the sixth on a two-run home run by Wisconsin-native Gavin Lux. From there, Jason Alexander provided an admirable performance to save the bullpen, working three scoreless innings.

The pitching performance did not matter much, as the Brewers couldn’t get anything going on offense. They worked counts early against Julio Urias and put the leadoff man on in each of the first three innings, including runners on first and second in the first and third. The Brewers failed to capitalize on these opportunities, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

The loss drops the Brewers to two games behind the Cardinals for the division lead. They’ll look to rebound tomorrow night with Brandon Woodruff on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CDT.