PHILADELPHIA – The Brewers clawed back into the game against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler and got four brilliant innings of relief from newcomer Colton Gordon in the left-hander’s Milwaukee debut, only to see Gordon’s outing unravel in his fifth inning on the mound in Tuesday’s 6-4 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Despite the setback, the Brewers (98-59) still managed to clinch a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the NLDS after Atlanta (92-65) lost to the Reds.
Here’s how the Crew’s loss on Tuesday unfolded:
Pecking away
Wheeler dominated the early innings. He struck out the Brewers’ first seven hitters of the game to tie a Phillies franchise record, and retired the first nine in a row before Garrett Mitchell’s flare clanked off third baseman Alec Bohm’s glove for a hit. Mitchell eventually scored on Contreras’ sacrifice fly, but Wheeler went into the sixth inning with 10 strikeouts and a two-run lead.
He had the game under control. Then the Brewers showed why they often remind their manager of the woodpeckers outside Pat Murphy’s suburban Milwaukee home.
David Hamilton singled from the nine-hole to lead off the sixth inning and stole second with one out. Jackson Chourio walked. Hamilton and Chourio pulled off a double steal on Brice Turang’s strikeout.
May’s day
After getting knocked out of his last start after 2 1/3 innings of six-hit, three-run ball on Friday in Baltimore, Dustin May came back on short rest Tuesday against the Phillies so he could pitch once more during the final series of the regular season against the Cardinals. The Brewers and May figure that the more chances he gets to touch the mound, the better, as May tries to work through a slump he attributes mostly to pitch selection and sequencing.
“It’s simple,” Murphy said before the game. “We want to give him as many outings as we can. It probably won’t be an extended outing, but it’s still a chance to go back out there and pitch, and just kind of solidify how he wants to do things. He keeps adjusting to his new environment, and we’ve all got to get on the same page. And he wants to jump back out there. It works out perfect for us.”
The results, however, were not what May and the Brewers wanted. He issued a two-out walk in a scoreless first inning, then a one-out walk in the second ahead of Brandon Marsh’s two-run homer on a 1-2 sinker.
May tilted back his head and spun around. His reaction said it all. His day was done after two innings and 36 pitches.
Gordon debuts
Acquired with Lance McCullers Jr. in a July trade with the Astros, Gordon gave the Brewers a chance to climb back into the game by opening his Milwaukee tenure with four scoreless, hitless innings. He was back on the mound in the eighth for a fifth inning of work.
That’s where Gordon and the Brewers found trouble. After Luis Arraez and Bohm extended the inning with two-out singles, Bryson Stott singled to center field. Garrett Mitchell conceded the run and threw towards third, where it looked like the Brewers would have had Bohm out by a wide margin had the baseball not hit his foot and caromed away. Bohm scored an insurance run as a result.
The Brewers, though, noticed that Bohm had turned his head to see Mitchell’s throw. Murphy came out on the field, presumably to argue that Bohm had intentionally interfered. The umpires converged, but the runs stood, and it became a three-run rally for Philadelphia after Marsh plated Stott with a double off the left-field wall.