DENVER – No matter the year or the record of the club in purple, anyone in Major League Baseball will tell you it’s not an easy task to come into Coors Field and sweep a series.
That’s just what the Milwaukee Brewers did this weekend, overcoming the ballpark that tends to produce unpredictable, quirky baseball to take all three games over the Colorado Rockies.
The Brewers used a seven-run rally in the sixth to flip the script in a 12-4 win in the finale June 7, backing a strong outing on the mound from left-hander Shane Drohan.
“Anytime you can win here, it’s a very tough place to play,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. “They’ve got some injuries and they’re very young. But facing [Kyle] Freeland, the guy knows how to pitch and he’s been very successful against us and was today.
“It’s hard to win a major league game on the road. It’s hard to win a major-league game period. You take nothing for granted.”
BOX SCORE: Brewers 12, Rockies 4
The win marks the fastest the Brewers have ever gotten to 40 wins in franchise history, smashing the prior mark of 67 set in 2014 and 2018 by doing it in 63 games.
It also gave Milwaukee only its third sweep in franchise history at Coors Field, which opened in 1995. It also did so in 2004 and 2014.
Shane Drohan delivers quality and length
Drohan had yet to pitch more than 4 ⅓ innings in the majors when he toed the rubber at Coors and worked into the seventh.
Drohan’s outing – 6 ⅓ innings, five hits, three runs, four strikeouts and one walk – was by definition a quality start. In context, it was more than that.
The rookie left-hander could have gotten away with allowing no runs had it not been for some shoddy defense behind him in the first and fifth innings that produced all of Colorado’s scoring.
Drohan was a soft contact fiend, staying out of the heart of the plate while remaining on the attack. The Rockies average exit velocity was just 86.5 mph and only five of the 20 hardest-hit balls in the game through seven innings came against him.
“Poised as hell,” Murphy said. “Throws five pitches and commands all them. This kid’s special.”
A side throwing session on June 5 when the team arrived in Denver was critical to Drohan’s success in his outing. During that pregame work, he got a feel for how his pitches worked and ultimately decided to mostly scrap the cutter and changeup, and instead rely on the sinker-slider combination.
He generated 15 balls in play on the sinker and slider, pitching backwards in a sense by opening up the game with lots of breaking balls before going sinker-heavy later on.
“I think it’s really just mental,” Drohan said of pitching at Coors. “I was lucky enough to throw a side here Friday and see how the ball moves differently. At the end of the day, it’s just mental. It comes down to a mindset of just executing pitches and that’s what I did.”
From down two to up five
It took four batters for the Brewers to hit for the cycle as a team against Rockies starter Kyle Freeland and reliever Jaden Hill in the sixth.
William Contreras began the festivities inconspicuously, dumping a single in the vast outfield. Andrew Vaughn followed with a triple ‒ yes, you read that right ‒ on a liner to right-center that got past a diving Jake McCarthy.
Gary Sánchez delivered the swiftest swing, greeting Hill with a 447-foot, two-run homer on the first pitch he threw to give the Brewers a 4-3 lead in the sixth.
Garrett Mitchell capped the club cycle with a rocket off the wall in right-center for a double.
Sánchez’s homer was his first since April 14, and that was just the tip of the spear for unexpected outcomes from Brewers batters in the frame. Ortiz, whose struggles with the bases full are well-renowned, drew a bases-loaded walk despite being down in the count, 1-2, at one point. Blake Perkins back-spun a sacrifice bunt attempt and it resulted in his first hit as a left-handed hitter in 32 at-bats this year.
And, of course, Vaughn hitting a triple with his 10th percentile sprint speed is never on anyone’s bingo card.
“I told him he’d never have one again,” said Murphy, who made a day of ribbing his players.
“Hopefully I’ll prove him wrong,” said Vaughn in his own defense.
Before the game, while Jackson Chourio ate breakfast, Murphy walked past and asked if he was going to go hitless an entire weekend in Colorado. The 22-year-old outfielder responded that he was going to swing first pitch. A couple hours later, he opened the game 3 for 3 on a total of three pitches seen.
“Good coaching,” Murphy said.
Brewers tack on in ninth
Sánchez and Mitchell did more extra-base damage in the ninth to put the game completely out of reach, even by this ballpark’s standards.
Sánchez, who had one RBI since April 29 coming in, drove in his third run of the day with a double to left against Keegan Thompson as part of a four-run ninth.
Mitchell followed with a two-run triple to center that McCarthy nearly put over the fence with his glove for his career-high third extra-base knock of the game, all of which came in his final three at-bats.
As a team, the Brewers’ 10 extra-base hits were their most since a 19-2 slaughter of the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 1, 2022.
Sac fly makes it a 3-1 Colorado lead
Following the theme from the first two runs Colorado put across, the Brewers defense wasn’t able to prevent a Rockies tally to make it 3-1 in the fifth.
With Braxton Fulford, a catcher by trade, on third with one out, Jackson Chourio had a chance to record an out at home on Troy Johnston’s fly to shallow left but his throw was up the first-base line by a few feet. That allowed Fulford to slide in feetfirst just ahead of the tag from Sánchez.
Luis Rengifo puts Brewers on the board
The hardest-hit ball as a Brewer by Luis Rengifo got the Brewers’ scoring started against Freeland.
Rengifo turned around a pitch at 109.2 mph up the middle with two outs in the second and it skipped all the way to the fence 415 feet away, allowing even Vaughn to churn all the way home from first.
Defense allows Rockies to score two in first
Shane Drohan’s line indicated he gave up two earned runs in the first. In reality, it should have been none.
A pair of defensive miscues that didn’t go down as errors hurt the Brewers as the Rockies jumped ahead early. First, Brice Turang lost a pop-up in the sun to give Willi Castro a leadoff single. Not a minute later, Mitchell whiffed on an Ezequiel Tovar liner to center, allowing it to skirt past for a double.
A fly ball and soft grounder later, Tovar scored to make it 2-0, but after that Drohan settled in to deliver a massive, bullpen-saving outing.
“He threw the ball so well,” Vaughn said. “Huge for him to come back after that tough first inning with the crazy play with me and [Brice Turang]. Being able to settle in and do that was really big.”
Brewers probable pitchers and schedule
Brewers at Athletics (in Las Vegas), June 8, 9:05 p.m.: Milwaukee LHP Kyle Harrison (7-1, 1.57) vs. Athletics LHP Jeffrey Springs (3-6, 4.37) TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Athletics (in Las Vegas), June 9, 9:05 p.m.: Milwaukee LHP Robert Gasser (0-2, 4.73) vs. Athletics RHP J.T. Ginn (3-3, 2.74). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Athletics (in Las Vegas), June 10, 8:05 p.m.: Milwaukee TBA vs. Athletics RHP Jack Perkins (2-3, 6.19). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers slug 10 extra-base hits in 12-4 win to sweep Rockies in Denver
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
