Why Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski is unlikely to appear in all-star game
Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski probably won’t pitch in the all-star game despite his amazing season, and here’s why
PHOENIX – From his office at Chase Field on July 3 following more than 3½ hours of profoundly unkempt baseball, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy was posed with a question about how his team found a way to win.
“I’m not sure we did that tonight,” Murphy said. “I’m not sure which team lost it and which team won it.”
The scoreboard would tell you Murphy’s club won it, 7-4, in 11 innings over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
An aesthetic victory it was not, leaving the manager to muse that his team “did everything we could to screw it up.” A starter that didn’t make it out of the third inning in an outing he labeled “pathetic.” A botched squeeze bunt. A double play that almost required inventiveness to hit into. Thirteen straight hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“You can’t make that [expletive] up,” Murphy said.
But on a night of odd turns, spoiled rallies and hard-hit baseballs finding gloves, it was a little dribbler that opened the floodgates and gave the Brewers what ultimately amounted to a hard-fought win.
With the Brewers hitless in their last 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position, a two-foot Jackson Chourio jam-job straight into the ground in the top of the 11th produced a pair of runs when pitcher Ryan Thompson uncorked a wild throw home.
Brice Turang followed Chourio’s excuse-me hit with a two-run single to make it a 7-3 lead and provide some feel-good cushion on a night where the only such comfort that previously existed was the padded seat in ailing manager Pat Murphy’s spot on the dugout.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 7, Diamondbacks 4 (11 innings)
The Brewers offense’s clutch hitting shriveled up in the desert heat for the duration of the evening until the 11th, putting the pressure firmly on a cavalcade of bullpen arms that had to cover 25 outs to secure the win after Kyle Harrison didn’t make it out of the third.
Chad Patrick did yeoman’s work upon relieving Harrison in the third, then passed the baton to the three horses – Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill. That still wasn’t enough as the bats squandered chance after chance, requiring Grant Anderson to work the 10th.
And work he did, recording the final six outs, to put an end to the grueling, marathon affair.
“His poise was amazing,” Murphy said of Anderson. “Megill, Uribe, Ashby, on top of Patrick. 8⅓ innings of relief, it was pretty impeccable.”
Grant Anderson does fine work in tough spot
The Brewers ‘B’ bullpen has been under immense scrutiny, but it was under that microscope that Anderson delivered in the bottom of the 10th.
After the Brewers offense failed to score the inherited runner in the top half against former Brewers spring training pitcher Taylor Clarke, Anderson induced a double play following a Corbin Carroll intentional walk, then sent the game to the 11th with a pop fly.
Anderson needed only five pitches in the 10th, then worked around an Ildemaro Vargas RBI single to plate the automatic runner in the 11th to seal the victory.
Questionable squeeze call backfires
The Brewers were 3 for 15 with runners on base when they put the first two on in the eighth against left-hander Brandyn Garcia. They’d be 3 for 18 by the end of the frame.
Andrew Vaughn reached on a fielder’s choice that moved the go-ahead run to third. Rather than allow Cooper Pratt to swing away, the Brewers called for a second squeeze bunt with their rookie shortstop in three days, but Pratt didn’t get it out of the dirt and Jake Bauers got caught between third and home.
“You can’t fault Bauers there,” Murphy said.
Murphy previously dialed up a safety squeeze for Pratt on July 1, which resulted in an out at home although the Brewers vehemently disputed the result of a replay review on the play.
Chad Patrick provides important relief
Patrick entered Harrison’s mess in the third and escaped it by getting Vargas to pop out and strand the go-ahead run on base.
By the time he departed, it was the seventh inning and the score was still tied.
Patrick provided 3 1/3 innings of critical relief after Harrison recorded only eight outs, bridging the game to Ashby in the seventh. He struck out two, walked none and allowed only one hit while getting some assistance from Jackson Chourio in left, who got payback on Lourdes Gurriel Jr. for his home run robbery earlier with a stellar leaping catch at the wall.
“I hung one there and definitely thought he got all of it,” said Patrick. “Chourio made a great play on it and luckily the fans didn’t interfere.”
Patrick picked up on the intent of the Diamondbacks hitters from his first at-bat of the outing against Vargas. Normally a patient hitter, Vargas swung at the first pitch, which told Patrick all he needed to know after the Diamondbacks were pesky with their patience against Harrison.
It marked a third consecutive strong showing from Patrick this week, which is perhaps a sign that he’s back on the upswing in what’s been a topsy-turvy year with highs that are quite high and extremely low lows.
“The game has a lot to do with the mental side,” Patrick said. “More than anything, trying to not let something affect the whole outing goes a long way. As far as I can tell right now I think it’s just being the aggressor.”
Brewers find a way not to score in fourth
When Pratt singled, stole second and David Hamilton walked to open the fourth, it seemed the Brewers were back in business right after losing the lead.
They were not.
Christian Yelich lightly tapped a grounder to the mound and the Diamondbacks brought in Jonathan Loaisiga to face Chourio with two in scoring position.
Chourio and Hamilton then teamed up for a creative way to hit into a double play as the left fielder ripped a grounder to shortstop, who instead of having to try and beat Pratt home with a throw simply tagged out the bypassing Hamilton to start a twin killing.
“I’ve never seen it in my life,” Murphy said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Kyle Harrison runs into major trouble in third
Harrison, to say the least, was displeased with his performance in the aftermath.
The Diamondbacks grinded out at-bats against Harrison in the third until they were able to chase him from the game.
Of the five batters to reach base against Harrison in the inning, four reached with two strikes, including Nolan Arenado who tied the game at 3-3 with a two-out double to left on the 38th pitch of the inning.
That was the end of the line for Harrison, who had two outs with one on when Corbin Carroll smashed a single on a slurve past a diving Bauers, Gabriel Moreno did the same to bring home a run and Gurriel Jr. walked.
“It sucks that I went out there and did the job I did today,” Harrison said. “That’s pathetic. I need to be better. I need to go deeper in games and I’m going to work my butt off to do that.”
The struggles for Harrison, he said, stemmed largely from not being able to execute his breaking ball as the Diamondbacks were either spoiling fastballs at 96 and 97 mph or laying off entirely.
“They had a great approach against me,” he said. “Not chasing anything down. Just a really frustrating day but the bullpen did a great job and we got the win, so that’s all that matters.”
Garrett Mitchell stays red hot
The only thing hotter than the sun in Phoenix – which reached face-melting temperatures of 106 degrees before the game – is Garrett Mitchell.
Coming off a homestand in which he went 8 for 16 with two home runs and five total extra-base hits, Mitchell launched one of the loudest long balls of the year in the second off starter Jose Cabrera, who also didn’t pitch deep after being yanked by manager Torey Lovullo in the fourth.
Following Bauers’ single to center, Mitchell wasted no time swinging away at a center-cut, first-pitch cutter and turned it around at 111.8 mph. The ball traveled 435 feet to center, and Mitchell needed every last foot of that to clear the towering 25-foot fence.
“Just looking for something over the heart of the plate up in the zone and didn’t miss it,” Mitchell said.
In his next at-bat, Mitchell nearly did it one more time; in fact, he did hit the ball over the fence again, but leftfielder Gurriel Jr. went well above the yellow line at the top of the fence to bring back what would have been a three-run homer.
“I almost clapped,” said Murphy.
The web gem proved to be quite the impactful play. Rather than the Brewers leading by six and possibly chasing Cabrera, Arizona stayed in the fight and wound up being the ones to chase the starter.
Mitchell later made an impact with his glove, as well, chasing a long fly ball off Max Kepler’s bat down to lead off the ninth with Megill pitching. It was the type of play – a crashing catch into the fence – that Mitchell came up short on multiple times earlier in the season.
That’s not happenstance, Mitchell said.
“As time has gone on, I felt like there was a flip of a switch going back to playing at Wrigley [in May] where I felt the defense came back and I felt like I was back to being myself again,” he said. “I feel like I’m in a great spot mentally, moving with confidence. Got to go make the play. There’s nothing more to do in that situation.
“I’ll give up my body any day of the week to try and get a ‘W.'”
Brewers probable pitchers and schedule
Brewers at Diamondbacks, July 4, 8:40 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Brandon Woodruff (2-1, 2.59) vs. Arizona RHP Merrill Kelly (5-8, 5.84). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Diamondbacks, July 5, 3:05 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Brandon Sproat (3-4, 5.28) vs. Arizona LHP Eduardo Rodríguez (7-2, 2.21). TV – Peacock. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
