The Milwaukee Brewers were dealt a deflating loss on Thursday. How did it happen?
The Milwaukee Brewers dropped a closely contested series finale to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, 5-4 due to a Spencer Torkelson walk-off home run. Below were the moments that led up to it.
Back and Forth Battle
The beginning of the game did not go well for the Brewers defensively, especially for right-hander Brandon Sproat.
Sproat got the starting nod for MIlwaukee and immediately gave up a leadoff double to Detroit’s Kevin McGoingle. After forcing Gleyber Torres and Colt Keith into groundouts, Sproat gave up a 406-foot home run to Riley Greene that put the Brewers in a 2-0 hole.
The Brewers could not manufacture any runs until the fourth inning, when they finally got to Tarik Skubal in the form of back-to-back doubles by William Contreras and Gary Sánchez.
However, the Tigers responded after Milwaukee replaced Sproat with Aaron Ashby in the bottom of the sixth inning, ending the former’s outing after 5 ⅓ innings in which he gave up four hits, three earned runs and two walks while striking out four batters.
When Ashby took the mound, he gave up a single to Greene that got Keith to third base. Subsequently, Keith scored when Dillon Dingler grounded into a force out to make it a 3-1 game.
The Brewers would not give in as they kicked off the top of the seventh inning with three straight hits: A single by Sánchez, a single by Luis Matos, and a two-RBI double by Blaker Perkins to tie the game.
That response by Milwaukee compelled the Tigers to get Skubal off the mound, but it would not stop the Brewers’ offense. Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton notched singles of their own off Detroit reliever Tyler Holton to give them the lead.
The Tigers answered yet again in the bottom of the eighth inning off a Jahmai Jones home run that tied the game, 4-4.
Ninth-Inning Heartbreak
After the Brewers failed to score with runners on second and third base in the top of the ninth inning, Abner Uribe took the mound in the bottom of the ninth as the closer to try and force extra innings.
After striking out Matt Vierling to earn his first out, disaster struck for Uribe as Torkelson launched his walk-off shot to left-center field on a 99.2 mph sinker from Uribe after he was dealt three-straight balls.
After losing to the Tigers on Wednesday. Thursday’s loss marks the first time Milwaukee has lost consecutive games since its six-game losing streak from April 7-14.
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