MILWAUKEE -- It was the first 80-degree day all year at Miller Park, yet one was hard-pressed to find anyone wearing a Brewers uniform who enjoyed the beautiful afternoon during a frustration-filled, 7-2 loss to the Phillies on Saturday.
Ryan Braun earned a quick ejection from plate umpire Mike Estabrook following a strikeout in the fourth inning. Manager Craig Counsell later got his money’s worth after being ejected at the end of the eighth. And Phillies starter Jake Arrieta made good use of Estabrook’s strike zone while mostly silencing the Brewers’ bats in a loss that left Milwaukee in danger of being swept in the three-game series.
“Jake Arrieta is really good," Braun said. "His stuff is really good. Today, he was really good. He didn’t need extra help.”
Braun, Counsell, Lorenzo Cain and crew chief Paul Emmel all weighed in on the series of disputed strikes that led to Braun’s seventh career ejection and Counsell’s 14th as a manager, on a day that Arrieta was an equal source of frustration for the Brewers. He allowed two runs on five hits in eight innings to lower his lifetime ERA against Milwaukee to 3.30 in 19 starts, and did not allow a run until Mike Moustakas’ two-out solo homer in the seventh inning. That hit snapped a streak of 16 consecutive batters sent down in order.
But the Brewers began to string something together in the eighth inning, when Eric Thames singled and Orlando Arcia bounced a one-out double over third base before Hernán Pérez's run-scoring groundout made it 4-2. Up next was Cain, who looked at five straight pitches, two of which were called strikes to Cain’s obvious ire.
With the count full, Cain grounded out to second base to end the threat. Counsell reacted from the dugout and was ejected, then stormed onto the field for a nose-to-nose argument with Estabrook.
“Look, let’s just focus on the Cain at-bat,” Counsell said. “It’s two pitches. It’s [Christian] Yelich on deck. It’s the tying run [in Cain]. It’s an enormous part of the game.
“They were just clear balls. In my eyes, you can’t miss -- there are 50-50 balls that we all understand are going to go either way, but those are balls. They have to get those ones right. … [Estabrook] had a bad day. I think, especially in a moment like that when we have some momentum and we have a chance to do something -- with a guy that I think has earned the right to strike calls in Lorenzo Cain -- it’s an important part of the game. You want to get those ones right.”
As the crew chief, Emmel opted to speak with the media following the game.
“I'm not going to react to somebody else's comments,” Emmel said. “We have our system that we're graded on. We have our system that we look at. I don't know if it's the same one they have. We have our technology and we go off that. We answer to our technology and our boss.”
Emmel declined to comment about the specific calls that preceded the ejections. In the fourth, Braun objected to a pair of strike calls prior to a swinging strike three and, when he continued the conversation while walking away, he was swiftly ejected. In the eighth, Cain believed one called strike was off the plate away and another was below the zone.
“We have a record,” Emmel said. “We're held accountable for our mistakes, as well as what we do well.”
Asked about contact between Counsell and Estabrook during their argument, Emmel said, “The league will handle that.”
Was Arrieta aiming to capitalize on Estabrook's zone?
“I wasn't pitching to that,” Arrieta said. “I was just trying to be down with my movement. After I let the ball go, whatever happens is out of my control. Might have been some borderline pitches there, but it happens every game.”
The Phillies promptly pulled away in the ninth with back-to-back home runs from Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto off Alex Claudio for three insurance runs, giving Philadelphia four homers in the game. Andrew McCutchen and Cesar Hernandez had homered earlier against Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacín, who allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings. The Brewers dropped to 4-7 when Chacin takes the mound.
Cain was still stewing in full uniform when reporters were let into the clubhouse.
“I definitely should have walked there,” Cain said. “He missed two pitches there that I knew were balls. But it’ll do me no good [complaining] about umpires because nothing’s going to happen.
“You saw it. You saw where the pitches were located. It definitely could have been a game-changer if I walk there, and bring Yeli to the plate and see what happens.”