The Milwaukee Brewers headed to the south side of Chicago for a tuning against the White Sox ahead of Opening Day. Adrian Houser took the mound for the Brew Crew, while Carlos Rodon did the same for the White Sox. Houser had his plumb bob and his slider working tonight. By the time he left the game, he covered 4.1 innings, struck out 4 and induced 6 Ground Ball outs.
Chicago reached Houser at the end of the second. In reality, Houser should have pulled a foul ball that remained in play with the bat of the former brewer, Yasmani Grandal. Orlando Arcia was playing on the second base side in a turn that resulted in him covering a lot of ground. He was able to get to the ball that hovered over the shot grass on the third base side of the field. Arica stumbled slightly and made him hesitate enough for the ball to bounce off the heel of his glove.
Houser’s next throw was a ball that made Grandal walk. Eloy Jiménez continued to roll a double down the third base line. With the runners on second and third, Luis Robert connected a hard punishment to Jedd Gyorko, who made the first of two very good plays on the night at third base. Gyorko recorded the start early, but Grandal was able to score the game’s first run.
The story of the night came on the offensive side of things. Milwaukee brought in his power sticks, shooting four home runs. The first came off the bat from Keston Hiura, who carried Rodon over the wall to right field to tie the ballgame in the top of the fourth.
The Brewers scored a second run in the fourth inning when Manny Pina doubled at Avi Garcia to take a 2-1 lead.
Christian Yelich would lead Rodon to the top of the fifth. Yelich’s home run flew well in the left field seats, giving the Crew a 3-1 lead.
In the top of the seventh, Ben Gamel hit a shot that caught the ball and Luis Robert’s glove on the wall in left center to make it 4-1.
The final homer of the night came in the ninth when Orlando Arcia shot a shot on the wall in left field.
While the bats were on display tonight, the pitch was pretty good, too. The aforementioned Houser pitched very well. David Phelps, Josh Hader, Alex Claudio, Corey Knebel, Justin Grimm and Mike Morin came out in this game. Hader was a little crazy, but the only pitcher to fight was Grimm. He hung a curved ball that was tied to the line by a double. Nicky Delmonico followed that up with a big fastball fly that Bill Schroeder called “straight as a rope.” Delmonico’s two-run homer made it 4-3 at the time. Orlando Arcia’s home run gave us our final score of 5-3.
Of special interest, Corey Knebel looked pretty good. Knebel’s corner was on full display when he faced Eloy Jiménez. Jiménez had no answer for that. Knebel was only around 92 mph on his fastball, so I hope his speed increases as the season progresses. Still, Knebel was effective against some good White Sox hitters who left them 1-2-3 in the seventh.
Milwaukee will play its first game of the regular season on Friday against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The first launch is scheduled for 6:10 CT. Brandon Woodruff will take the mound for the Brewers, while Kyle Hendricks will do the honors for Chicago. The game will be televised to a national audience on ESPN.
