Opportunistic Brewers cash in on Rox's erratic play

DENVER -- Brewers manager Ron Roenicke and Rockies manager Walt Weiss have been a part of Major League baseball for more than 65 years between them. Neither can ever remember seeing anything close to the bases-clearing, three-run wild pitch from Rockies left-hander Christian Friedrich that occurred Saturday.

"I don't know what happened at home plate," said Roenicke. "That was wild."

One day after a blow-for-blow slugfest, all the Brewers had to do was not step on their own feet as the Rockies committed a season-high four errors, gift-wrapping five unearned runs in a 9-4 matinee win at Coors Field.

"I always check the effort first, that's first and foremost," said Weiss. "But we didn't execute today … we were sloppy early on, there's no way around that."

And it didn't hurt that the Brewers took advantage of every opportunity the disheveled Rockies presented, including a play by Jean Segura that Roenicke described as so "heads-up" even he couldn't recognize it unfolding.

Making his first start since 2012, Friedrich set up the force play in the third inning by intentionally walking Segura to load the bases with two outs after one run had already scored. With Wily Peralta in a 1-2 count, Friedrich sailed a fastball over the head of catcher Michael McKenry, nearly three feet over where McKenry was asking for it.

Following a pinball-esque ricochet around the backstop, McKenry scooped up the ball only to repay the favor to Friedrich by flinging it far out of his pitcher's reach as Aramis Ramirez scored. Mark Reynolds strolled home from second as Friedrich chased that elusive baseball down near the Brewers' on-deck circle.

Assuming his luck couldn't get any worse, Friedrich began his slow walk back to the mound with his head down as McKenry, dazed from having his wind "totally knocked out" on his diving throw, tried to recollect himself. Segura took notice of no one taking notice, subtly curving around third before turning on the burners and beating Friedrich home on a last-second dive attempt from the pitcher.

"It was a crazy play," said Segura. "It was something that I'd never seen in my life, in my career. It was funny. It was so funny and at the same time, it was a good moment for us."

On the flipside, Roenicke recognized it as the type of demoralizing moment that's nearly unrecoverable on the Rockies' end.

"When you see something like that, it hurts," said Roenicke. "I know on our side, when we commit an error and all of a sudden they get three runs because of it, it's just deflating."

Just an inning earlier, the Brewers pushed across four in a seemingly never-ending frame that included two errors from third baseman Josh Rutledge and one from second baseman DJ LeMahieu.

Justin Morneau helped the Rockies jump out to an early lead off Peralta with a single in the first for his sixth and seventh RBIs of the series. But Peralta (8-5) remained resolute, hanging in for 7 2/3 innings with two more runs scoring on Corey Dickerson's home run to center in the sixth.

"You never really change anything," said Peralta. "You just try to set your delivery and make a pitch … Just go out there and try to execute no matter what."

Peralta finished at 110 pitches, striking out two against eight hits and one walk to win his career-best fourth straight game.

"I thought Wily did a great job keeping the ball down," said Roenicke. "He got a lot of ground balls today which is what he does when he's right. He threw some nice sliders today and got some outs on his changeup too."

Right-hander Rob Wooten tossed an inning before handing the ball off to Tom Gorzelanny for the final out of the game.

Facing the team he made his Major League debut against in a stadium he hasn't played in since 2010, Reynolds broke out of an 0-for-12 slump with two hits, two runs and two RBIs.

"Playing in the [National League] West for a lot of years [with the D-backs], it was fun coming here," said Reynolds. "Taking [batting practice] out there really fuels your confidence too. It's a good place to play and a good place to hit. I'm just happy to get some results."

In his second consecutive three-hit performance, Ramirez chipped in a solo home run and two runs scored before departing in the ninth with what Roenicke described as a "tight back."

Carlos Gomez also extended his career-best hit streak to 17 games and his career-best streak of safely reaching base to 34 with a second-inning double.

While Roenicke loves the sound of solid contact, he wouldn't mind an efficient, clean game on Sunday's getaway day. But he's not holding his breath.

"I think that would be really nice and probably not possible," said Roenicke.