MILWAUKEE -- Rookies Cooper Pratt and Luis Lara combined to drive in six runs and Robert Gasser pitched six strong innings to lead the Brewers past the Rockies, 8-5, on Saturday night.
The NL Central-leading Brewers got on the board in the second against Ryan Feltner. Jake Bauers drew a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on Garrett Mitchell's groundout and scored on Lara's sacrifice fly. Pratt followed with a Statcast-projected 409-foot solo homer, his second of the season, to stake Milwaukee to a 2-0 lead.
Gasser retired the first eight Rockies batters he faced before Ezequiel Tovar’s single in the third. Gasser struck out the next batter, leadoff hitter Jake McCarthy, to end the inning.
Things began to unravel a bit for Gasser in the fourth. Kyle Karros singled to start the frame, Cole Carrigg doubled and both scored on Hunter Goodman's broken-bat single. But Gasser retired the next three hitters to escape any additional damage.
The Brewers regained the lead in their half of the fourth when Bauers singled, moved to second on Lara’s base hit and came around to score when Pratt laced a shot into right that deflected off the glove of second baseman Willi Castro.
Lara’s bloop double in the sixth off Rockies reliever Juan Mejia drove in a pair to extend the Brewers' lead to 5-2. Pratt’s sacrifice fly plated another run and a Rockies throwing error accounted for one more as Milwaukee tallied four runs in the inning.
Lara drew a leadoff walk in the eighth and later scored on Christian Yelich’s sacrifice fly as Milwaukee’s lead grew to 8-2.
The Rockies scored three times in the ninth, forcing the Brewers to bring in closer Trevor Megill, who gave up a run-scoring hit but got one out to record his 17th save in 19 tries.
Gasser, who retired nine of the last 10 he faced, gave up five hits and two runs in six innings. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in an efficient 77-pitch (51 strikes) outing.