Game recap
Great Britain 7, Brewers 3
DL Hall isn’t playing in the World Baseball Classic, yet he pitched for Great Britain as the Brits gobsmacked the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-3, on March 3 at American Family Fields of Phoenix.
Hall found himself starting for the Brits – but wearing his baby blue Brewers jersey rather than the visitors’ red uniforms – and went three innings, allowing one run on one hit and two walks while punching out a pair.
The idea first came from Britain, which approached the Brewers in advance of the game because it didn’t have enough pitching to cover exhibitions and WBC games, which begin later in the week. The Brewers wanted Hall to face as many lefties as possible, so they tabbed him to pitch for the Brits and stacked six lefties in the lineup against him.
BOX SCORE: Great Britain 7, Brewers 3
“I think it was great for DL. That’s a real bright spot today,” manager Pat Murphy said. “There’s a couple real bright spots. It’s not just results. It’s how they’re executing pitches. DL Hall was a real bright spot, even if it was against us.”
The afternoon was rubbish for the rest of Hall’s teammates, who found themselves on the wrong end of a five-spot by Britain in the fifth with Jared Koenig on the mound.
“If today was a real baseball game you’d have to say this performance was piss poor,” Murphy said. “That’s the best adjective I can use for if today was a real game. If this was the type of effort and this was the type of execution, you’d have to say piss poor on both ends.”
Other positives for the Brewers were the spring debuts of Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison.
Misiorowski got up to 99.7 mph on the first batter he faced before throttling it down over two innings with nine whiffs, five strikeouts and one run allowed. He threw another 10 pitches in the bullpen afterward to simulate another inning of work.
Harrison made his debut in a Brewers uniform and looked downright filthy over his three innings of work. The lefty, acquired in the Caleb Durbin trade in February, put up zeroes in each frame and struck out two. He debuted a new-look, gravity-slicing changeup that generated two whiffs and two more called strikes.
Akil Baddoo hit his second homer of spring, a 114.4 mph missile to right-center that traveled 433 feet.
Jared Koenig hit hard
There have been some concerning signs through two outings for Koenig.
The lefty reliever followed his four-run, one-out outing in his spring debut Feb. 28 by being hit around even harder this time. Koenig faced six batters and retired just one, surrendering five earned runs in the process and bringing his ERA up to 135.00 – no, that’s not a typo.
All five balls hit against Koenig were rockets, including a home run by Harry Ford: 96.9, 104.3, 105.1, 109.1 and 110.0 mph.
On the flip side, Koenig’s velocity was down for a second straight outing. His average sinker was 92.6 mph, more than three ticks down from his 95.8 average in 2025, and he topped out at 93.5 with the pitch.
Now comes the typical – yet important – “it’s only spring training” caveat: It’s only spring training.
Koenig has made only two appearances, and meaningless ones all things considered, and has an established track record over the past two seasons in the Brewers bullpen while pitching to a 2.67 ERA.
“It’s all part of getting ready,” Murphy said. It’s a part of how many appearances he had last year. He was maybe the most unsung player on our team last year. Let’s give him a break. Hopefully it’s nothing more than he lost some weight in the off-season by design and let’s get his strength back up and get him back the way he can [pitch]. It’s very tough to mimic the big leagues. The margin [between] good and great is very close. I’m not concerned at this point.”
Quotable
“I want to be the first manager with a neck tatt.” – Murphy, when asked if he got any new ink in the off-season.
Prospect watch
Jesús Made got the start at second base and went 0 for 4.
Brewers spring training schedule
Brewers vs. Cubs, 2:10 p.m. Wednesday. Milwaukee RHP Brandon Sproat vs. Chicago RHP Edward Cabrera. TV – Brewers TV. Radio – AM-620.
Brewers at Rockies, 2:10 p.m. Thursday. Milwaukee LHP Robert Gasser vs. Colorado RHP Michael Lorenzen. Livestream – Brewers.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Great Britain 7, Brewers 3: Bloody tough showing in ‘piss poor’ exhibition
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
