Brewers @ Marlins - Back to Winning Ways

Game 1 -- Brewers 2, Marlins 1

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354727

Corbin Burnes continued his streak of dominant starts for the Brewers in the early going of the 2022 campaign tonight against the Marlins. Seven innings, seven punch-outs, no walks, and again only one run allowed on a solo home run in the third inning. Burnes getting through seven complete today is a nice pick up for a bullpen that's been working extra innings over the last week-plus with some short starts. 

The Brewers jumped on the board in the first inning on a Kolten Wong lead-off home run.

After a rocky start to the season at the plate, Wong has righted the ship, and has quietly put up some solid numbers recently, including a .942 OPS over the last fourteen days. Wong's defense remains a question mark. A -0.3 Bref dWAR at this point in the season is certainly uncharacteristic, and certainly when the Brewers signed Wong, a big part of the value in his signing was the defense. We'll see if he can tame that glove and get the defense turned around along with the bat.

With former Brewer Jesus Aguilar tying the game with a solo home run in the third inning, the score stayed 1-1 until the ninth inning. Burnes gave way to lightning rod reliever Devin Williams, who worked a clean eighth inning, striking out two. The Brewers put one on the board in the ninth with a bases loaded walk by Jace Peterson to retake the lead. It looked like a further opportunity squandered as they scored just once after having the sacks loaded with nobody out. It was all academic however, as closer Josh Hader came in and finished the game on seven pitches and the Brewers took game one. 

Burnes didn't get the win, leaving his record on the season just 1-2, but more importantly, the Brewers did get the win in a game he started. Hader recorded his thirteenth save in as many tries.

Game 2 -- Marlins 9, Brewers 3

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354742

Eric Lauer took the bump for the Brewers tonight and suffered the rare rough start as the Marlins touched him up for three home runs in the fourth inning. The Brewers once again jumped on the board first with a solo home run by Willy Adames in the first inning, but that would be all the offense they'd muster until the game was out of reach.

Lauer worked scoreless through the first three innings, allowing just one base runner on a single. Holding a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, he surrendered home runs to Jesus Aguilar, Jorge Soler, and Brian Anderson, and left the inning down 4-1. It's now the second game in a row former Brewers all-star Aguilar has taken one out of the park against his former team. 

Trevor Gott came on in the sixth and failed to record an out as the Marlins tacked on another four-spot off of both Gott and Jandel Gustave. 

The Brewers got two back in the eighth inning on Hunter Renfroe's ninth home run of the year, a 428 foot shot to left. That was the end of the scoring for the Brewers

Renfroe now has nine home runs and fifteen RBI on the season. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354757

Game 3 -- Brandon Woodruff gets the start in the series finale and the Brewers look to get back to Milwaukee with a semi-respectable 4-5 road trip.

The Brewers scored in the first again, just like each of the first two games of the series, this time on a Luis Urias sacrifice fly. The Marlins got two unearned runs off of Woodruff in the second inning, and struck again with a Jorge Soler solo home run in the third. 

Down 3-1, the Brewers looked to be headed towards a third straight series defeat. Then in the top of the fifth the bats came alive. Jace Peterson and Kolten Wong hit back-to-back solo home runs. 

Four batters later, a two-run, two out single by Rowdy Tellez put the Brewers up 5-3. Woodruff pitched through five innings and handed the ball over to Aaron Ashby who pitched brilliant in relief.  Ashby went four innings, striking out eight, and not allowing a hit or a walk, picking up the save.

Tellez picked up his eighth home run of the season in the seventh inning, and Luis Urias closed the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth. 

Willy Adames left the game in the second inning after tweaking an ankle. It was mentioned on the radio broadcast that he would be listed as day-to-day. It seems reasonable that the Brewers will give a more comprehensive status update on Adames on Monday, and hopefully any news that comes out about his injury won't include any kind of lengthy IL stay. 

Despite the rocky and inconsistent play, the Brewers head home with a 4-5 record on the road trip, and as of this writing, still holding a three game advantage over second-place St. Louis, who plays later tonight at San Francisco.