This one was a lost cause almost from the start.
After a bit of a bummer outing tomorrow the Tigers were hoping to take the rubber match on their last day in Milwaukee before heading back to Detroit for a weekend series against the Royals. A fresh-from-Toledo Keider Montero was on the mound for the Tigers, up against Jose Quintana, the veteran pitcher the Tigers have faced many times before.
In the first, the Tigers got some early opportunities as Quintana struggled with his command to start the game. Justyn-Henry Malloy got a leadoff walk, then Gleyber Torres hit into a double play. Andy Ibanez walked, and Quintana then made a pickoff move, except it wasn’t a pickoff move, and it was also clearly a balk, but the ground crew decided not to call it a balk, and what even are umpires for? Spencer Torkelson was the third walk of the inning, but a Riley Greene groundout ended the inning. In the home half Keider Montero looked excellent, though he allowed back-to-back singles to Christian Yelich and William Contreras, but otherwise struck out the side and limited the damage.
Javier Baez started the second inning with a single, but three outs followed to leave him stranded. In the bottom of the inning Garrett Mitchell hit a one-out triple, then Joey Ortiz walked to put men on the corners. An Oliver Dunn sac bunt scored Mitchell and the Brewers were first on the board. Montero limited the damage to the one run, though.
The third inning saw the Tigers go 1-2-3 in the top, and then the wheels fell off a little in the bottom half. Christian Yelich got a one-out home run. Sal Frelick collected a two-out single, and then Rhys Hoskins brought two runs in with a homer. Not ideal.
Baez got a two-out single in the fourth, followed by a Tomas Nido single. (If you’re not up on transactions, Nido came up from the minors when Jake Rogers went to the IL to act as backup for Dillon Dingler). Neither baserunner was allowed an opportunity to score. Thankfully the home half of the fourth was a tidy 1-2-3 inning for Montero.
The Tigers didn’t do too much to help themselves in the top of the fifth, going three-up, three-down yet again. The bottom of the fifth was gratefully also 1-2-3 for the Brewers.
Top of the sixth and the Tigers finally got a little action with a one-out solo home run from Spencer Torkelson.
With two outs, Baez reached first on a throwing error by Hoskins, and that was the end of the day for Quintana. Abner Uribe was out of the pen for the Brewers, against a pinch-hitting Colt Keith. Keith singled into the center field gap. Alas, the Tigers left two men stranded as Uribe struck out Sweeney to end the inning. Starting out the bottom of the inning, Sal Frelick hit a solo home run. Rhys Hoskins followed that with a single. That was it for Montero, whose final line of the game was 5.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 3 HR on 85 strikes. Brant Hurter was in out of the pen and got three outs in a row to end the inning.
Grant Anderson was the next Brewers’ pitcher out to start the seventh. A pinch-hitting Kerry Carpenter singled, then Torres struck out and started barking at the umpire to the point where Hinch went out to escort him back to the dugout. (It WAS a very borderline strike.) Zach McKinstry was in for Ibanez, emptying the Tigers’ bench, and he drew a walk. A Torkelson strikeout ended the inning and left two men stranded. Story of the day. In the home half Brice Turang reached on a throwing error by Hurter to first—he seemed to just throw as hard as possible right into the dirt in front of first—Turang ended up safely on third from the error. With two outs Hurter intentionally walked Contreras, who then stole second to put two men in scoring position. Hurter got out of the inning with no damage done.
Jared Koenig was the newest reliever out for the Brewers and he continued the trend of getting out the side. In the bottom of the inning, Will Vest came in for the Tigers and he made short work of burying the Brewers in order.
It was the Tigers’ last stand in the top of the ninth and they were facing Trevor Megill. With one out, Dillon Dingler singled to right. Kerry Carpenter grounded into a double play to end the inning and the Tigers dropped their first series of the season since the opening weekend against the Dodgers.
Final: Brewers 5, Tigers 1