Major League Baseball

Brewers 5, Rockies 4

Published Mar. 12, 2012 1:26 a.m. ET

foxsports

Yovani Gallardo stayed on track for a possible opening day assignment.

The former All-Star pitched 3 1-3 scoreless innings Sunday and the Milwaukee Brewers beat a split squad of Colorado Rockies 5-4.

Gallardo used 45 pitches to scatter three hits and a walk with two strikeouts. He's fanned six in 5 1-3 innings this spring - he finished fifth in the NL last season with 207 strikeouts but struggled at times with his command.

This spring, Gallardo has made a concerted effort to improve his efficiency in the hopes of keeping his pitch count down and working deeper into games. To that note, he's ignoring statistics for now.

''It's more location,'' Gallardo said. ''That's a huge part in the first couple starts in spring. You don't want to go out there and walk five guys in three innings. Command is where everything starts.''

Colorado starter Alex White, competing for a spot in the rotation, threw three innings in his second start of the spring, allowing a run on three hits. The run came in the third when Carlos Gomez singled home Rickie Weeks.

White, who went 2-4 with an 8.42 ERA in seven starts a year ago, has been working on adding a slider. Of his 65 pitches Sunday, he estimated four or five were sliders.

''It's a pitch I have and I have confidence in,'' White said. ''That's where I need to learn to throw particular pitches in any count.''

Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy continued his strong spring, going 1 for 3 and scoring a run. In five exhibitions, he is batting .571 (8 for 14) with a home run, three doubles, two RBIs and four runs scored.

Chris Nelson doubled and singled for the Rockies, who have lost six in a row.

Milwaukee took advantage of two errors to push across four runs in the seventh. Colorado came back in the ninth, scoring four runs before Mike McClendon came on to record the final out.