MILWAUKEE -- Jackson Chourio was too close to the wall when he started his leap, and a rough afternoon for the Brewers was underway from the very first pitch.
Chourio bounced back from that flub to hit a pair of home runs, but Brewers rookie starter Coleman Crow lasted only seven outs and relievers DL Hall and Grant Anderson were both injured during Thursday afternoon’s 12-9 loss to the Giants at American Family Field, depleting Milwaukee’s pitching ahead of six games over the next six days in offensive environments in Colorado and West Sacramento.
“I say it all the time: This season and every season, it will give you the full catastrophe,” manager Pat Murphy said. “We’ve had a surplus of injuries early. ... Now, you have potentially two more injuries, you give up 20 hits today, that’s probably not a recipe for a first-place club. But look where we are.”
The Brewers (37-23) are atop the National League Central as they head out for a three-game series against the Rockies in Denver, where all three of Milwaukee's probable starters will be pitching at Coors Field for the first time in their careers. That’s followed by three more games against the A’s at their Triple-A ballpark -- another venue that dramatically favors hitters.
Even at full strength, the trip would challenge a Milwaukee staff that owned the second-best ERA in the Majors before yielding season highs for runs (12) and hits (20) against the Giants, digging so deep a hole that a spirited rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, when David Hamilton’s deep drive fell five feet short of being a tying three-run shot and his second home run of the game, wasn’t enough.
Now, the staff will see at least one new arm on Friday after news that Hall exited Thursday's game with a left subscapular or pectoral injury in the fifth inning. He will stay behind to get an MRI scan in Milwaukee while the rest of the team travels to Colorado.
Hall’s replacement, Anderson, left the game two innings later after being struck on the right forearm -- his pitching arm – by Bryce Eldridge’s line drive in the seventh. It “only” left the bat at 89.6 mph, but hit Anderson so flush it left clear seam marks, though initial X-rays were negative. Anderson plans to try playing catch in Colorado on Friday.
If that wasn’t enough, the Brewers are still awaiting the result of setup man Abner Uribe’s appeal of a one-game suspension. That resolution could come soon.
“We do a pretty good job of sticking together, and I have to give some credit to ‘Greenie,’” said Anderson, referring to bullpen coach Charlie Greene. “He’s always telling us to hold the line, next man up. We play for each other out there, especially in the ‘pen.”
Thursday’s trouble started with Crow (No. 25 prospect per MLB Pipeline) being knocked around for six runs on nine hits and two walks in 2 1/3 innings in the first start of his career in Milwaukee. His outing began inauspiciously when Giants leadoff man Casey Schmitt hit Crow’s first pitch for a homer when Chourio’s back hit the wall as he jumped. The baseball bounced on top of the wall and over.
“Home run robberies are becoming so prevalent,’ Murphy said. “There are five times as many as ever before, so you’ve got to practice it, you’ve got to become good at it. He’s not, at this point. But that’s a skill that takes time, and he’s been injured this year, and all of that other stuff.”
Chourio later found redemption when his own two-run home run bounced off the top of the right-field wall and over in the fifth inning, and he hit another in the seventh for his third career multi-homer game.
By then, the Giants were playing with a big lead. They scored three runs in the first inning, three more in the third and six in the seventh, when former Brewers backup catcher Eric Haase hit a grand slam to make it a 10-3 game. It was 12-6 going into the bottom of the ninth, when the Brewers scored three times and came within a deep fly ball of tying the game.
“They’re going to always play hard,” Murphy said. “We get some guys out of there that we needed to get off their feet -- [Brice] Turang, [William] Contreras, [Jake] Bauers. Lo and behold, it’s 12-9 and the ball is traveling 101 mph toward the center-field fence, and you’re thinking, ‘Maybe!’ I’m just proud of our guys. This is baseball. This is how it goes.”
Now it goes to Colorado, where anything can happen.
“Like I said, the full catastrophe is alive and well in every Major League season,” Murphy said.