The Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins were deadlocked in a scoreless battle through six-and-a-half innings on Tuesday night at Target Field. When the Brewers went to their bullpen, the Twins put a 5-spot on the board and went on to post a 5-3 victory.
Twins left-hander Devin Smeltzer tossed six shutout innings and Brewers right-hander Zach Davies was equal to the task. Then came the home half of the 7th when the Twins got to Brewer relievers Alex Claudio and Junior Guerra.
Jason Castro led off with a single to left and a Keston Hiura error put runners at the corners. Max KLepler followed with a two-run double to right to put the Twins on the board 2-0.
Claudio (1-2) got the next hitter to popup before Guerra took over. Guerra promptly gave up a run scoring double to C.J. Cron. Then Eddie Rosario homered to right to give the Twins a 5-run inning and a 5-0 lead.
Hiura would make up for his throwing error by hitting a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Yasmani Grandal clubbed a solo shot in the 9th. But the Brewers would not earn a come from behind win for the second night in a row and would have to settle for a split of the two-game series.
The game was the major-league debut for Devin Smeltzer and the Brewers had chances to score on him, but failed.
Yasmani Grandal tripled to start the second, but the Brewers left him stranded at third. Ryan Braun also doubled to start the fourth inning but was eventually doubled off second when Kepler made a leaping grab at the wall on a Mike Moustakas drive to right-center field.
When Kepler went to grab the ball from his glove, he dropped the ball, but the umpire ruled the catch legal on the field and a Brewers challenge confirmed the out.
The Brewers have a travel day today. They’re headed for Pittsburgh where they’ll open a series against the Pirates on Thursday night.
June 9th game soldout
The Brewers announced today that the Sunday, June 9 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates is completely sold out. There are not any tickets remaining for the game (including standing room), which will feature a Christian Yelich bobblehead giveaway.
The Brewers will open the Miller Park gates 30 minutes earlier that morning, allowing fans to begin entering the ballpark at 11:10 a.m., two hours before the game’s first pitch.
