Brewers 1, Rockies 7: Brewers Get Rock(i)ed

Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Eric Lauer - 4.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 84 pitches, 48 strikes (57.1%)
Home Runs: None 
Top 3 WPA: Brice Turang (.040), Elvis Peguero (.031), Owen Miller (.005) 
Bottom 3 WPA: Eric Lauer (-.129), Willy Adames (-.079), Tyrone Taylor (-.074) 

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Peralta Loves Coors Field, Lauer Does Not
Before the game, I saw a worrying tweet that stated that Eric Lauer had the worst ERA of all active pitchers at Coors Field, with a minimum of 100 batters faced.

Now, past performance is not perfectly indicative of future results, but in this case, they weren’t too far off. Lauer started off strong, conceding zero runs in the first three innings of his start while fanning three. He started the fourth inning strong, striking out Jurickson Profar, before cracks began to show. 

After Kris Bryant reached base on an error by Mike Brosseau, CJ Cron doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Elias Diaz hit an RBI single to score Bryant, and would be pushed into scoring position himself by a Randal Grichuk walk to load the bases. Lauer bounced back by striking out Ryan McMahon, but gave up a bases-clearing double to Alan Trejo. When the dust cleared, the Rockies had gone up 4-0. 

It should be noted that official scoring tagged Lauer with no earned runs in this start, and he did have six strikeouts, so perhaps the game wasn't actually his fault. Despite just one official error allowing Bryant on-base, all four of these runs were considered unearned.

Sadness In The Seventh (and Eighth)
After Lauer’s early exit in the fifth inning, Elvis Peguero worked the remainder of the fifth inning and the entirety of the sixth, giving up just one hit. Hoby Milner took over at the start of the seventh. After getting Charlie Blackmon to ground out, he faced the top of the Rockies order. He gave up a double to Profar and a rare Coors Field home run to Bryant, ending his brief night and allowing the score to balloon to 6-0 in favor of the Rockies.

Milner was replaced by Jake Cousins, who started by loading the bases on a walk and two consecutive hits. Luckily, a flyout and a laser of a throw by Tyrone Taylor helped secure a crucial double play, preventing Colorado from running up the score any more. 

Cousins kept cruising in the eighth before giving up a solo home run to Blackmon, putting the Rockies up by seven runs.

Missing: Have You Seen The Brewers Offense?
In yesterday’s game recap, I noted that the Brewers had the second-lowest OPS against lefties in MLB. Today’s game was a good example of that. Lefty Kyle Freeland had his way with the Milwaukee lineup, giving up just three hits and no walks in his five-inning start. Despite the Rockies bullpen being a mix of both righties and lefties, it just seemed like the Brewers were out of their element, unable to make solid contact.

In today’s episode of Batted Balls That Should’ve Been Home Runs But Ended Up As Doubles, Brice Turang (who has seen some offensive struggles as of late), hit a 418-foot rocket to enter field that had an expected batting average of .560 and would’ve been a home run in 22/30 ballparks.

What’s Next? 
Wade Miley will pitch against Connor Seabold in the final game of this somewhat disheartening series. In 37 1/3 innings pitched at Coors Field, he’s averaged an ERA of 5.79 and based on his tOPS+ of 135, batters hit 35% more effectively against him than his average performance. Coors Field is his third-worst ballpark, so we’ll see if he can defy the odds in his next start. 

Pitching aside, the Brewers need to rediscover what made their hitting so exciting at the beginning of the season. Over the last seven days, they are the worst-hitting team in the NL and the second-worst in MLB, slashing .191/.279/.270 for an OPS of .549.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

Tweet Highlight