MINNEAPOLIS – For a look at how fickle hitting with men in scoring position can be, take the Milwaukee Brewers’ afternoon at Target Field on May 17.
Entering the day, the Brewers were second in Major League Baseball with a .289 batting average with runners in scoring position. Timely hitting has been at the core of how the offense has gotten the job done to this point in the season despite typically not getting much from the power department.
In the series finale, it went away.
Milwaukee went 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on base as it was unable to finish off a sweep of the Minnesota Twins in a 5-4 loss.
“I think those ones you regret,” manager Pat Murphy said. “You have a chance to win, a chance to break it open at some point and we never got that big hit.”
BOX SCORE: Twins 5, Brewers 4
In many ways, it was an atypical Brewers game.
They got some rare pop, with Christian Yelich homering in his first game in five days and Garrett Mitchell adding a solo shot to give the Brewers their first multi-homer game since April 30. It was also their first multi-homer game on the road all year.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, struggled in the areas it typically excels.
Robert Gasser battled his control early in his season debut, the defense handed the Twins a pair of runs and the offense came up short time and time again in big moments.
Milwaukee stranded two with one out in the second, then wasted a one-out double in the fifth and a leadoff two-bagger in the eighth. In the sixth, the Brewers put two on with one out again but Luis Rengifo struck out and Jackson Chourio, who had a rough day both in the field and at the plate, grounded out.
For a fitting conclusion, they came up just short of piecing together a rally in the ninth when two reached with one out. After a Yelich strikeout, Jake Bauers roped the first hit with a runner in scoring position all day to make it 5-4, but Sal Frelick popped up to the catcher to end it.
“We should be third now,” Murphy said of his team’s standing with runners in scoring position after their struggles all day.
Ryan Jeffers greets Grant Anderson rudely
Twins designated hitter Ryan Jeffers found the right jet stream to hit into.
On the first batter Brewers right-hander Grant Anderson faced after taking over for Gasser following four innings, Jeffers sent a solo homer five rows deep to left to put the Twins up, 4-3.
The game-winning run came in the ninth against Jake Woodford, although in reality the defense was once again just as liable.
On a Luke Keaschall fly to the base of the warning-track in left-center, Chourio ranged across the gap and closed on the ball in time, but dove to make the grab when he likely could have caught it on the run. As such, the awkward position of his glove at the midsection of his body led to it popping out and rolling to the fence for a triple.
One batter later, Keaschall scored on Victor Caratini’s shallow fly ball as Bauers airmailed the throw home.
“We didn’t play good defense,” Murphy said. “…We didn’t catch the ball in the eighth inning there that [Chourio] didn’t have to slide. Popped out of his glove.”
Christian Yelich homers in return
After a pair of forgettable at-bats in his first game back in five days due to back discomfort, Yelich put a loud swing on a ball in the fifth, sending a game-tying homer to right-center against starter Bailey Ober.
The blast, Yelich’s second of the year and first since March 29, needed every last ounce of power to clear the tall, 23-foot fence in right with the wind howling in.
Bauers was burned by that very wind for the second time in the game moments later, sending what he thought was a surefire homer in the air to right-center only to see it land near the warning track.
Balls hit at the same launch angle and exit velocity as Bauers’ two flyouts averaged 398 and 414 feet, respectively, this year. Both of his went 366 feet, leaving Bauers to do nothing but throw his hands up as he stood near first base.
“I’m not a super analytical guy but 104 [mph] at 27 [degrees] is usually a homer,” Bauers said. “And 106 at 36 is usually a homer. Sometimes it gets you.:
Garrett Mitchell gets one back
Pitchers have steadily attacked the hole in Garrett Mitchell’s swing against fastballs up this year, but the Brewers center fielder responded against Ober in the fourth inning.
Getting a fastball at the upper threshold of the strike zone, Mitchell clobbered it at a scalding 115.5 mph out to right-center and over the 23-foot wall for a solo homer to cut the deficit to 3-2.
It was Mitchell’s first homer since April and the seventh hit by Milwaukee on the road this year.
A mess on defense puts the Twins ahead
Kody Clemens’ second double of the day turned into a Little League two-run homer when the Brewers failed to make three separate plays.
First, left fielder Jackson Chourio couldn’t make a difficult grab running into the wall toward the line. Then, as Ryan Jeffers slid into home, shortstop Joey Ortiz’s throw skipped past catcher William Contreras. Gasser was not backing up the play, instead finding himself somewhere along the third-base line in foul ground, and the ball skipped into the Twins dugout.
Because Clemens had already taken off for third when the ball eluded Contreras, he was awarded home plate to make it 3-1, Twins.
“I thought the play was going to be at third and didn’t realize we were relaying four and crossed over in the wrong way and was in the wrong spot,” Gasser said. “It’s on me.”
Murphy wasn’t pleased in the slightest with Gasser being in the wrong spot.
“You do that in high school,” Murphy said. “You back up home. You get to the same angle the ball is coming, you catch that ball, they don’t advance another base, the next guy’s out, see you later.”
David Hamilton keeps on bunting
With runners on the corners and one out, David Hamilton did what he does: bunt.
It didn’t work out, as Hamilton bunted it too firmly back to Ober, and Sal Frelick had to hold at third.
“For a guy who that’s his art, it’s unacceptable,” Murphy said.
Hamilton has now ended a plate appearance with a bunt 18 times this season, which is four more than the next-highest total in baseball and twice as many as the player with the fourth-most bunts. 20% of his batted balls this year have been bunts.
Murphy later pulled Hamilton, who struck out looking following a Joey Ortiz double in the fourth, in favor of the switch-hitting Rengifo in the sixth. The results followed a similar trend as they have all year from the Brewers third basemen, as Rengifo struck out to strand two in the sixth and grounded out to close the eighth with another pair of runners aboard.
Robert Gasser can’t command it in first inning
Beginning with a leadoff walk, struggles with location hurt Gasser in his first big-league inning of the season.
Clemens’ two-out double brought home Austin Martin for the game’s first run after the Twins right fielder walked on four pitches to open the bottom of the first.
From there, Gasser walked Luke Keaschall, hit Victor Caratini on the seventh pitch of the plate appearance to load the bases and then engaged in the longest battle yet to Royce Lewis.
Lewis fouled off six two-strike pitches, including one that first baseman Bauers dropped near the dugout, before ultimately relenting on pitch number 10 of the at-bat and 40 of the inning for Gasser.
Minnesota fouled off 11 pitches and had two foul tips against Gasser in the inning.
“Definitely not an ideal way to start but I felt like I battled back and did decent for the next three,” Gasser said.
Cubs up next for the Brewers
Next up: A trip to Wrigley Field with first place in the division on the line.
The last time the Brewers stepped foot in the north side of Chicago, they lost Games 3 and 4 of the National League Division Series.
Now, Milwaukee currently sits just 1 ½ games back of the Cubs despite being down at many as 5 ½ as recently as May 8.
“I mean, going into Wrigley especially after the postseason last year, I’m not going to stand here and tell you it’s not a big series,” Bauers said. “A lot of guys are excited for it. We have guys who are going to get a taste of that atmosphere for the first time and get their feet we with it. We’re looking forward to it.”
Brewers schedule
Brewers at Cubs, May 18, 6:40 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Brandon Sproat (1-2, 5.75) vs. Chicago LHP Shota Imanaga (4-3, 2.32). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Cubs, May 19, 6:40 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Jacob Misiorowski (3-2, 2.12) vs. Chicago RHP Ben Brown (1-1, 1.60). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Cubs, May 20, 6:40 p.m.: MilwaukeeLHP Kyle Harrison (4-1, 2.09) vs. Chicago RHP Edward Cabrera (3-1, 4.06). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers drop series finale in Minnesota behind uncharacteristic play
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
