Article: Series Recap: Brewers and Twins Split a Pair

[DuWayne Steurer]

With the Crew coming off a lackluster home stand, they looked to rebound against their cross border American League rival Minnesota Twins. The lineup was bolstered with the return of Hunter Renfroe from the IL after a second extended stay for hamstring issues. 

Game 1 -- Brewers 6, Twins 3
Box Score 
Game one of the series was only occasionally stalled by rain, thunder, and lightning, as the Brewers and Twins waited at times for the ground crew to pull the tarp out only to immediately take it back off the field. Three separate weather delays held the game up, but ultimately the game was able to be completed in its entirety.

The Brewers jumped out to a quick lead on a two-run, opposite-field poke from Andrew McCutchen. 

With his early season struggles well behind him, McCutchen has put up a .941 OPS with five home runs over the last 28 days. With so many injuries to the outfield, McCutchen has been forced into action in the field more than the Brewers had likely planned, and his -.4 dWAR undoes some of his offensive value, but he's been one of the offensive anchors for the past six to eight weeks. 

Brewers starter Jason Alexander gave up single tallies in the second and fourth innings, while the Brewers offense was held in check by Twins starter Josh Winder through the fourth after the McCutchen home run.

In the fifth inning, light-hitting Jonathan Davis slapped a single to center to score Hunter Renfroe and restore the Brewers lead at 3-2. With two outs and Davis on base, Willy Adames hit a towering home run to left that either the cameraman lost, or hasn't come down yet.

Given the rain delay between his last inning, and possibly other factors, manager Craig Counsell pulled Alexander in favor of reliever Jandel Gustave who pitched a scoreless fifth inning. The Brewers stretched the lead to 6-2 on a Jace Peterson RBI single in the sixth inning. The Twins struck back for one off of recently-struggling reliever Brad Boxberger. The Brewers will have to have Boxberger get things figured out quickly with Josh Hader also running into some trouble closing games out as of late as well. 

With no further drama (or rain delays) on the night, the Brewers brought Hader in, and he emphatically slammed the door, striking out the side in the ninth. Gustave gets the win to bump his record to 2-0 on the season and Hader records save number 27. 

Game 2 -- Twins 4, Brewers 1
Box Score 
The Brewers offense went dormant again, providing just one run on a solo home run by Peterson. Starter Aaron Ashby went just 4 1/3 innings, with his pitch count ballooning over 100. He allowed six hits and three walks but allowed just one run in his short stint. 

Despite Ashby's short start and the Brewers lack of offense, the bullpen locked things down for the bulk of the afternoon, as Trevor Gott, Boxberger, and Devin Williams held the Twins in check until the ninth inning. The Brewers offense was held punchless as well, offering up just the noted solo homerun by Peterson against Twins starter Joe Ryan in the third inning. The Crew managed just four hits on the day, went 0-6 with men in scoring position, and left six men on base all told. 

Going into the bottom of the ninth, each of the first two Twins reached base against Brewers all-star closer Hader, and the third batter of the inning, Jose Miranda, ended it all with a monstrous three-run second deck shot. The loss drops Hader to 0-3 on the season as the Brewers left Minnesota with a split in the short two-game set. 

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