Offensive assault leads Brewers to 12-4 win and sweep over Rockies

Box Score

For five innings on Sunday afternoon, the Brewers looked on their way to a disappointing afternoon. They were hitting the ball okay, but they weren’t stringing hits together. Some early defensive lapses gifted the Rockies an early lead, which held at 3-1 through five innings. But in the sixth, the dam burst, and Milwaukee commenced an offensive assault on a series of Rocky relievers. Milwaukee scored seven in the sixth and added four more in the ninth, and another solid day for Shane Drohan and the Brewer pitching staff gave the Brewers a comfortable victory and just the second sweep Milwaukee has ever achieved in Denver.

Jackson Chourio led off the game with a single to right off of starter Kyle Freeland, but Brice Turang struck out and William Contreras grounded into a double play. In the bottom of the first, the Brewers were let down by some sketchy defense. Willi Castro, the Rockies’ leadoff hitter, hit a pop-up on the right side of the infield. Vaughn gave way to Turang, but Turang lost it in the sun, and it dropped on the infield dirt. Castro was awarded a single. Next up was Ezequiel Tovar, and he hit what should’ve been a single to center field… but Mitchell misplayed it, and it got past him. Blake Perkins recovered it and threw to the infield, but not before Castro scored and Tovar made it to second. The official scorer ruled it a double, so through two batters, the Rockies had a single and a double, though they should’ve had a pop-out and a single.

Tovar moved to third when TJ Rumfield flew out to right, and he scored when Hunter Goodman hit a weak grounder to first. Kyle Karros flew out to end the inning, but they had an early 2-0 lead, and Drohan had two extremely tough-luck earned runs on his line.

Milwaukee got half the runs back in the top of the second. Andrew Vaughn led off with a hard single at the end of a 10-pitch at-bat. Gary Sánchez flew out, and Mitchell struck out, but an unlikely source came through with two outs: Luis Rengifo crushed a line drive at 109.2 mph into left-center that rolled all the way to the wall, and Vaughn scored from first. A Perkins groundout ended the inning, but the score was 2-1.

Drohan had a much nicer second inning, 1-2-3 with a strikeout. In the top of the third, Chourio hit a one-out double on a hard grounder down the left-field line. But Turang flew out and Contreras grounded out, and Milwaukee was unable to capitalize. Troy Johnston led off the bottom of the third with a double, but Drohan worked out of it with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to end the inning.

Freeland worked a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fourth with consecutive groundouts from Vaughn, Sánchez, and Mitchell. Drohan walked Karros with one out in the bottom of the inning, but Jake McCarthy grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Perkins walked with one out in the top of the fifth, and after Joey Ortiz flew out to center, Chourio jumped on the first pitch and lined another double into the right-field corner — on just the third pitch he’d seen on the day, he had his third hit. Unfortunately, Chourio hit it hard enough that Perkins couldn’t score from first and had to hold at third. Turang hit a ground ball to first and nearly beat Freeland to the bag, but he didn’t quite beat him, and the inning ended with two runners stranded in scoring position.

Braxton Fulford lined a double to the wall to lead off the bottom of the fifth and moved to third on a Chad Stevens groundout. Johnston hit a fly ball to medium-shallow left field, and Fulford tested Chourio’s arm — a perfect throw would’ve gotten him, but the throw was a couple of feet up the first-base line, and Fulford slid in underneath Sánchez’s swipe tag. Castro grounded out to end the inning, but the Rockies’ lead was up to 3-1.

A looping Contreras single started the sixth. Vaughn, who followed, hit a fly ball to right-center; it held up long enough that McCarthy thought he could catch it, but he was mistaken. He dove and missed, Contreras scored, and Vaughn ended up at third with a triple.

That ended Freeland’s afternoon, as he was pulled for righty Jaden Hill. Hill’s first pitch was a sinker in to Sánchez, who got around on it and crushed it into the seats in left field, a 447-foot shot that was Sánchez’s sixth homer but first since April 14. Mitchell was next, and he got a 2-1 fastball right down the middle that he hit 403 feet off the high wall in right field for a double. Rengifo walked, and then Perkins laid down a bunt — meant to be a sacrifice — but he beat Hill’s throw to first, and the Brewers had the bases loaded with nobody out for Ortiz.

Ortiz walked, the Brewers were up to 5-3, and Hill had failed to retire any of the first five batters he faced. And now he had to face Chourio, who was 3-for-3 with two doubles. But Chourio hit a fly ball about a mile in the air to shallow left field, and Hill had the first out without surrendering another run, as it was not deep enough for Rengifo to tag. Milwaukee wasn’t done, though: Turang got an 0-1 hanging slider and pounded it into right field for a two-run single.

Hill was pulled after retiring just one of seven batters that he faced and allowed four earned runs, plus an inherited runner from Freeland. The new pitcher, Keegan Thompson, started against Contreras, who’d led off the inning. Thompson retired him this time, but on a ground ball that scored Ortiz from third for Milwaukee’s seventh run of the inning. Vaughn grounded out to second to finally end the inning, but the Brewers had turned a 3-1 deficit into an 8-3 lead.

With 65 pitches and a career-high (in the majors) five innings to his name, Drohan was back out for the sixth. Eleven pitches later, Drohan had another 1-2-3 inning. Sánchez hit another deep fly ball to start the top of the seventh, but this one hung up on the warning track for Castro (who took a bit of an adventurous route to the ball). Mitchell was next, and he also hit one deep toward Castro — this one got over his head, though it stayed in the ballpark, and Mitchell had his second double. After Rengifo grounded out, Sal Frelick was on to pinch-hit for Perkins, and he popped out on the first pitch to end the inning.

Drohan was back out for the seventh; he’d already thrown a major league career-high 76 pitches, though he’d gone as high as 89 pitches earlier this season when pitching for Triple-A Nashville. Drohan got the first out on a grounder to shortstop, and should’ve had the second on a high chopper back to the mound, but Drohan’s underhand throw to first wasn’t quick enough to get the speedy McCarthy, and that was the end of the line for Drohan. Pat Murphy called for Chad Patrick, and with the help of a Sánchez challenge, he struck out Edouard Julien looking and got a groundout from pinch-hitter Sterlin Thompson to end the inning.

Drohan went a career-best 6 1/3 innings and had four strikeouts to one walk. He allowed three runs, though two of those should’ve been unearned. It was a solid day at the office for the rookie lefty.

In the top of the eighth, Ortiz struck out looking in an at-bat where both the second and third strikes were pitches that the catcher Goodman successfully challenged. Chourio hit another ball over 100 mph, but it was a groundout to short, and Turang struck out swinging to end the inning. Castro hit a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth, but Patrick got Tovar to hit into a double play that ended the eighth.

Contreras smoked a single at 112 mph to start the ninth, and Vaughn followed with his third hit of the day, a single to right field. Sánchez was next, and he lined a ball into the left-field corner for a double that scored Contreras. On the first pitch Mitchell saw, he hit one to deep center — McCarthy, running back on it, got a glove on it but couldn’t make what would’ve been an impressive leaping catch. Mitchell ended up with a triple, and he scored when Rengifo hit a sac fly to left. The first four batters of the ninth scored, and Milwaukee’s lead was suddenly up to 12-3.

Frelick crushed a ball, too, but the first baseman, Rumfield, fielded his 106-mph grounder and made the second out. Ortiz hit a ball into the right-field gap and had a two-out double, but Chourio struck out to end the inning.

Craig Yoho was summoned from the bullpen to finish the game for the Brewers. He struck out Rumfield, but with one out, Goodman got a ball just over Mitchell’s outstretched glove and over the fence in straightaway center field for his 17th home run of the season. Yoho recovered to get a flyout from Karros and a strikeout of McCarthy, and the game was over.

Milwaukee’s offense was as potent today as it has been in any game this season. They erupted for 17 hits, 10 of which went for extra bases. The highlights included Mitchell, who was 3-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, two runs scored, and two RBIs; Sánchez, who was 2-for-5 with a homer, a double, and three RBIs; Vaughn, who was 3-for-5 with a triple, three runs scored, and an RBI; and Chourio, who was 3-for-6 with two doubles. Every Brewer starter picked up a hit today, and all of them except Chourio and Perkins had at least one RBI.

Drohan had a solid pitching line — he had a quality start, with three earned runs allowed in 6 1/3 innings — but he pitched even better than that line suggested, with the defensive miscues covered above. He got up to 83 pitches today, too, and surpassed his previous career-best single-game innings total by two full innings. Patrick calmly picked up five outs in relief, and Yoho was able to close the door despite the Goodman homer.

This was a nice sweep for the Crew, punctuated by an offensive explosion for a team that has, at times, struggled on offense this season. Milwaukee is back in action tomorrow night, as they wrap up their six-game road trip with a series in Las Vegas against the Athletics. That first game is a 9:05 CT start, so we’ll see you late tomorrow night.