The Milwaukee Brewers opened their series against the Cleveland Guardians with a win.
The Milwaukee Brewers were able to come out on the winning end of a low-scoring contest against the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday, stealing the opening game of the series 2-1 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
The Brewers have now won three of their last four games. What led to their success on Tuesday?
Battle of the Defenses
In a battle in which neither team scored more than two run and the game was decided by only one run, it is obvious that defense was the theme.
Through the first three innings, offense was mostly non-existent.
During that span, the Brewers and Guardians combined for just two hits and no runs. Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser was effective, as was Guardians right-hander Slade Cecconi.
Even when Milwaukee was able to strike first in the fourth inning, it managed just one run. Gasser remained in control into the top of the sixth inning, when his evening ended after allowing a single and forcing two outs.
Gasser finished his outing with five strikeouts while allowing two hits and two walks over 5.2 shutout innings of work. Then, Brewers manager Pat Murphy went to Joel Kuhnel. In the bottom of the sixth, Cecconi exited the game after matching Gasser’s 5.2 innings and striking out four batters while allowing three hits, two walks and one earned run.
Kuhnel was able to finish off the sixth inning for Milwaukee, only allowing one hit. Then, Aaron Ashby took the mound, and allowed the Guardians to tie the game after giving a walk, a wild pitch and an RBI single.
However, Ashby got out of the inning, and he was awarded the winning decision to make him 10-0 on the season, despite being assessed his second blown save of the year.
Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill finished the job by combining for two shutout, no-hit innings and four strikeouts while allowing just one walk.
Brice Turang and Garrett Mitchell
The Brewers were only able to muster four hits in 28 at-bats against Cleveland, but half of those left the field.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Milwaukee second baseman Brice Turang put the first run on the board with a line drive home run to right center field, marking his 11th of the season.
Then, in the bottom of the seventh, Garrett Mitchell added a solo home run to right center field of his own, marking his fifth of the season and providing the Brewers with a lead they did not relinquish.
Though they have found success in high-scoring games and innings, the Brewers needed to gut out a game where offense was in short supply, and they did so to improve to 44-26.
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