There was a lot of good from the Brewers series finale at Chicago Wednesday night. But despite a strong Major League debut from 29-year old rookie Jason Alexander and losing pitcher Hoby Milner, Milwaukee falls in 10 innings, 4-3.
Alexander’s debut night got off to a rough start, walking three in the first inning as Chicago took a quick 2-0 lead. But after that, Alexander became a ground ball machine, eventually registering 13 ground ball outs without a fly ball caught.
“He pitched really, really well,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell told reporters after the game. “He pitched as good as we’ve had this year, I think, past the first inning.”
The game was tied after nine innings at 3-3. Baseball’s controversial rule of putting an automatic runner on second base in extras did not favor Milwaukee on this evening.
The Brewers came close to taking a tenth-inning lead, but when Jace Peterson was thrown out at the plate on a ground ball contact play, the Milwaukee threat was effectively snuffed out.
In the bottom of the 10th inning, Chicago’s Nick Madrigal moved auto-runner Jason Heyward to third on a ground ball to the right side of the infield. Heyward then scored easily on a Christopher Morel flyout to left.
Despite getting two outs by the only two batters he faced on weakly hit balls, Brewers reliever Milner was nevertheless tagged with the loss.
The Brewers return to American Family Field for a four-game series with the San Diego Padres. Game one of the four-game series begins Thursday night at 6:40 p.m.