Entering the final week of the regular season, the biggest question for the Brewers is, \u201cWhat is their plan for the rotation and the bullpen?\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonight, we often heard Jeff Levering and Bill Schroeder talk about this, and from the fourth inning on, the Brewers looked to have found their answer. But was Colton Gordon\u2019s Brewers debut enough to sway the decision-makers for a spot on the playoff roster? Five innings of two-run ball on four hits, when most of that didn\u2019t come until the bottom of the eighth inning, feels like he\u2019d be worthy of a spot.<\/p>\n
Pat Murphy gave us a taste of what is likely more to come in the pitching situations, especially during the postseason, as Dustin May threw the first two innings of the game. His outing wasn\u2019t kind to him yet again, as he allowed a Brandon Marsh two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning.<\/p>\n
Marsh\u2019s home run came off the coat tails of Zach Wheeler striking out the first six Brewers of the game; the third of those was his 2,000th career strikeout. Following the home run from Marsh, Wheeler extended his strikeout streak to seven by cutting down Luis Lara to open the top of the third inning.<\/p>\n
The Phillies put together a two-out rally, and with two on and two out, Alec Bohn smacked his 29th double to drive in their third run of the game to extend their lead to 3-0.<\/p>\n
With Wheeler in complete control, the Crew needed to put together one of their signature innings, but before they could get there, they used a Garrett Mitchell lead-off single. Brice Turang followed with a single by himself, which set up William Contreras to drive in the Brewers\u2019 first run of the game to make it 3-1.<\/p>\n
Kyle Harrison made his first appearance coming out of the bullpen this evening, throwing just one inning where he allowed a run on three hits, striking out one. Even in a short spurt, Harrison didn\u2019t look comfortable, continuing to raise concerns as a reliable arm in the postseason.<\/p>\n
After Harrison\u2019s departure, that made way for Gordon to make his first appearance in a Brewers uniform, and what an unexpected outing the Brewers received. Outside Cooper Pratt\u2019s fielding error, Gordon was flawless, retiring the Phillies in order. His showing allowed the offense to find their groove in the top of the sixth. A single from David Hamilton and a walk from Jackson Chourio set up the Crew for a productive inning. Contreras drove in both runners with a base hit into left field to tie the game at 3-3.<\/p>\n
Then the bottom of the eighth inning happened, raising another question of whether Gordon should\u2019ve faced this lineup a second time through. Gordon was able to get Trea Turner and Bryce Harper out quickly to begin the bottom of the eighth inning, but Luis Arraez and Alec Bohm followed with a pair of singles. Bryson Stott made it three straight singles to make it 5-3 Phillies, as Garrett Mitchell\u2019s throw to third hit Bohm (who may have kicked it), allowing Bohm to score and Stott to advance to second. Marsh then added some insurance as he doubled to center field to drive in their final run of the evening and make it 6-3.<\/p>\n
The Crew didn\u2019t put up much of a fight in the top of the ninth as Contreras and Jake Bauers struck out to open the inning. Extending the game was Christian Yelich, who walked, advanced on defensive indifference, and scored on a Lara base hit to make it 6-4. The game would end there, though, as Pratt grounded out to end it.<\/p>\n
Yes, the Brewers offense looked bleak tonight, and the defense made some unusual throws, but they did face a consistent Cy Young Award-caliber player. Despite the loss, good news came out of Atlanta as the Braves lost to the Reds to give the Brewers a first-round bye.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow night, they\u2019ll face the right-hander Aaron Nola, as Logan Henderson will take the mound for (likely) the final time this season. The Crew still needs two more wins to reach 100, but has five games left to go with good arms yet to throw this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering the final week of the regular season, the biggest question for the Brewers is, \u201cWhat is their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[239967,99],"class_list":["post-857737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-milwaukee-brewers-scores-standings","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}