'Young thoroughbred' Sproat flashes struggles, upside in quality start

SAN FRANCISCO – After navigating an early jam on Monday night at Oracle Park, Brandon Sproat was seen in the Brewers dugout on the receiving end of a pep talk from manager Pat Murphy, the skipper’s hand on the 25-year-old’s shoulder as he imparted guidance to his right-hander.

Twice in the first three frames, Sproat avoided damage by retiring the heart of the Giants’ order -- specifically, left-handed sluggers Bryce Eldridge and Rafael Devers -- to strand a runner in scoring position.

Those escapes in the Brewers' 3-0 loss to the Giants were glimpses of Sproat’s promise as a potential rotation piece, though the sequences they capped also reflected that he’s very much a work in progress.

Or maybe a “young thoroughbred,” as Murphy characterized him pregame.

Just as Sproat retired two of San Francisco’s offensive linchpins while under duress, he also ran into command issues that ballooned his pitch count to 51 through three innings.

And while Sproat picked up his Major League-leading fifth and sixth pickoffs, he also allowed three stolen bases, marking Milwaukee’s first game this season allowing more than two.

“There's positives in there,” said Murphy. “What he did, giving us six innings … but again, he didn't hold runners great. That hurt us a little bit, or it could have hurt us, and then the homer. But to give us six innings and keep us close in the game, that’s … there's a positive in there.”

This game was a distillation of Sproat’s promise. He’s an alluring arm on the hill with a commanding presence, but one who also has to corral that talent. After airmailing a sweeper to begin the fourth, the Brewers’ TV booth dropped in a "Nuke" LaLoosh comparison -- referencing the duality of his high-velocity offerings landing either on the corner of the strike zone or sailing to the backstop.

Sproat coaxed a dozen whiffs and five strikeouts with his six-pitch arsenal, averaging 95.7 mph with his four-seamer. His only runs allowed came on Luis Arraez’s third-inning RBI single and Grant McCray’s two-run homer to left-center in the fourth.

“If I had to change one thing, I'd really just be cut down on the walks,” said Sproat. “Other than that, I thought it was a solid outing.”

And it was -- as Sproat exited with his sixth Major League quality start, “Bull Durham” references and all.

That’ll play, however adventurous a path he took to get there.

“I was able to finish six,” Sproat added. “It's been a while. To really help the bullpen out, it feels good to be able to do that.”

Murphy suggested it “might just take some time” for Sproat to fully harness his abilities on the mound and be the pitcher the club believes he can be.

“He's got to be ahead in the count,” Murphy said. “It sounds so easy to do, but he knows that that's what he needs to do. When he's ahead in the count, he's much more effective. He's just not consistent with his pitches. There's ball one, ball two, ball three. You saw it tonight. I don't know how many times, but you saw it three or four times.”

Like rotation mates Logan Henderson and Shane Drohan, Sproat’s name has come up as a Major League arm other teams are asking about as next Monday’s Trade Deadline draws near, Milwaukee seeking a roster boost for the stretch run as it eyes another NL Central title. And it stands to reason that a team looking to sell at the Deadline would inquire about any of those young pitchers, all of whom are under team control through 2031.

The Brewers probably also wouldn’t mind having him in their plans for years to come – after all, he was the key return in their January trade that sent Freddy Peralta to the Mets.

Offensively, the Brewers couldn’t get anything going against Tyler Mahle and a trio of relievers, only advancing two runners to second and mustering three hits and being shut out for the fifth time this season.

“In the first three innings, we had probably six positive at-bats,” Murphy said. “Then after that, we probably had three the whole night. And you can blame it on a lot of things, but that’s not normally how we do it. The guys had a super long night last night sitting on the runway for five hours … [but] they wouldn't want me making excuses for them. But yeah, credit the Giants. That's No. 1. Credit the Giants. They played well, pitched very well. They played great defense.”