The Milwaukee Brewers coughed up a blew a 4-2 lead in the 7th and fell to the Atlanta Braves 5-4 at Turner Field last night.
With pitching coach Rick Kranitz and bullpen coach Lee Tunnell away to attend graduations within their families, communication between their replacements and manager Ron Roenicke suffered.
Roenicke wanted right-hander Brandon Kintzler and lefty Will Smith to warm up, but only Kintzler got ready to pitch.
Kintzler entered the game with the Brewers leading 4-2 in the 7th. Gerald Laird hit a bouncer that caromed off the glove of diving third baseman Mark Reynolds and into shallow left for what became an RBI double, leaving runners at second and third.
Roenicke then went to the home plate umpire for a double switch, which included left hander Will Smith out of the bullpen. Smith wasn’t loose and was given only 8 warmup pitches once he arrived to the mound. The home plate umpire (Fieldin Culbreth) asked the league about allowing Smith to throw more warmup pitches and they said “no”.
The next hitter was pinch hitter Ryan Doumit who singled to drive in both runs and gave the Brewers the 5-4 lead. It also spoiled a solid performance by Matt Garza who allowed 5 hits in 6 1/3 innings and was charged with four of the five runs. The loss goes to Brandon Kintzler.
The Brewers dropped 3 of 4 to the Braves in the series and are now 2-5 on the road trip. The Brewers have lost 12 of their last 15 games at Turner Field.
The Brewers will send Marco Estrada (3-2, 3.64) to the mound for game 1 of a three game series in Miami against Marlins right hander Tom Koehler (4-3, 2.25).
