Pat Murphy shivered a bit as his mind wandered back to that April afternoon in the Rocky Mountains when Quinn Priester made his Milwaukee Brewers debut.
“When I saw him in Colorado,” the Brewers manager said. “Ugh. I don’t know. This is a project.”
That sentiment didn’t go away as Priester continued to make his first handful of starts in blue and gold, with Murphy even saying his decision “would have been to let him go to Triple-A and work this stuff out.”
The 24-year-old, in the end, sure wound up working it out. He just did it at the big-league level against the best hitters in the world.
Facing the same team as he did in that debut that was shiver-inducing for his skipper two months prior, Priester elicited a much different reaction June 28 as, this time, he turned the Colorado Rockies’ offense into his personal muse.
Priester spun seven innings of shutout ball with 11 strikeouts to lead the Brewers past the Rockies, 5-0, and to their fourth straight win.
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The only thing that left a bad taste in the mouth of anyone in the Brewers dugout was an an otherwise innocuous one-out single off the bat of Michael Toglia in the fifth, a dribble through the right side that proved to be Colorado’s only hit of the afternoon.
“This is the second time we’ve thrown a one-hitter and I’ve given up the hit,” Priester said. “Tried to get that ball elevated and pulled it down a bit and he put a good swing. But was happy to keep everything there and put up some zeroes and come up with a win. And going seven, really proud of that.”
The Brewers kept up their winning ways, improving to 22-8 in their last 30 games and jumping to a season-best 11 games above .500. Colorado, meanwhile, dropped to 18-65, firmly on pace to register the worst record in MLB history.
Quinn Priester in full control
For seven innings, the Rockies’ at-bats were being completely and utterly dictated by the Brewers right-hander.
It was a parade of weak contact early in the count and swing-and-miss late for Priester, who struck out 11 over seven innings, both career-bests. The Rockies didn’t register a hit off Priester until Toglia’s one-out single in the fifth, then didn’t register another as he completed a career-high seven frames and then handed it off to Aaron Ashby and DL Hall, who each threw scoreless innings to seal the win.
It was the most impressive start of the year for Priester, whose in-season development has been nothing short of incredible since being acquired via trade from the Red Sox on April 7.
Priester finished his afternoon with a career-best 20 swings and misses, including an eye-popping 16 whiffs on 23 hacks against his breaking balls. Primarily a sinker-slider pitcher for most of the year to date, Priester credited the advancement of the cutter and curveball, his lesser-used secondaries, for the increased whiffs.
“I think it protects everything,” Priester said. “Meaning you can’t sell out to pulling your hands into that sinker because we can go to that cutter down and away. It’s a really bad ball to swing at if you’re trying to hit a sinker on your hands. The secondary stuff all plays off that bottom rail. The more I can do those things, then I can go up with the cutter, the curveball comes into play. It’s being able to do everything and picking our spots.”
Joey Ortiz, Priester examples of what the Brewers try to do
As shortstop Joey Ortiz blasted a two-run home run in the fourth to back Priester, it was another reminder of a needle the Brewers are constantly trying to thread as an organization: Player development while prioritizing winning.
Ortiz, in his first full taste of being an everyday shortstop in the majors, was the worst qualified hitter in baseball by OPS until recently. He had two homers all season across 76 games entering this homestand.
Yet, the Brewers stuck with him, day-in and day-out, and he’s now socked three homers in the last four games.
“It’s part of it. Nobody’s going to be playing great all year and if you are you’re probably the MVP,” Ortiz said. “A lot of guys can attest to going through the ups and downs of a season, trying to grind through and smile your way through it, because it’s a blessing to go out and play every day. That’s something you try to remember.”
But for struggling young players, it’s not quite as each to practice that as it is to preach it.
“Earlier in my career, it was hard to believe that,” Priester said. “Because the results didn’t change.”
The Brewers have operated in this medium before, knowing just how much rope to give a young player while balancing both winning now and in the future. Look at Corbin Burnes. Brice Turang. Jackson Chourio. They’re doing it with Ortiz and Priester now, as well as Caleb Durbin, Chad Patrick and more.
“It’s been a blast,” said Priester.
Hitting streaks for Turang, Yelich extended as Brewers jump in front
It isn’t often that a pair of Brewers teammates have had coinciding double-digit game hitting streaks, and the one that they had rolling into June 28 was extended another day early on.
Christian Yelich and Brice Turang each singled in the first inning as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead against Rockies righty Antonio Senzatela. Turang’s infield hit with the bases loaded opened the scoring, then Rhys Hoskins hit a warning-track sacrifice fly to center. Turang’s streak now stands at 12 games, one above Yelich.
Turang then doubled in each of his next two at-bats, flaring the first one down the line in left during the third inning and smacking a 105.8 mph two-bagger to the warning track in center in the fifth to score William Contreras.
What time is the Brewers game tonight?
Time: 3:10 p.m.
What channel is the Brewers game on tonight?
TV channel: FanDuel Sports Wisconsin
Brewers lineup
Rockies lineup
Brewers schedule
Brewers vs. Rockies, 1:10 p.m. June 29. Milwaukee RHP Chad Patrick (3-7, 3.72) vs. Colorado RHP Germán Márquez (3-9, 5.79). TV – FanDuel Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 5, Rockies 0: Milwaukee pitchers throw one-hitter as Quinn Priester fans 11, Joey Ortiz goes deep
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
