Brewers suffer another tough loss despite impressive outing by Nelson
MILWAUKEE -- It is getting to the point where the Milwaukee Brewers are topping themselves in frustrating ways to lose.
One night after losing despite scoring 10 runs, the Brewers wasted an outing in which Jimmy Nelson matched Johnny Cueto pitch for pitch over eight innings.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Francisco Rodriguez bounced a changeup that bounced just far enough away from catcher Martin Maldonado to allow Billy Hamilton to score the go-ahead run in Cincinnati's 2-1 victory at Miller Park.
The Brewers have now lost eight straight to fall to a dismal 2-13 on the young season.
"Yesterday we scored 10, lose 16-10. Today we lost 2-1," Maldonado said. "We played great defense, just one mistake and that was the game. When stuff is going this way, every mistake counts, like what happened today."
Possibly more frustrating than the wild pitch was Rodriguez walking the speedy Hamilton with one out in the ninth inning. Joey Votto followed with a single to center, easily sending Hamilton to third.
Rodriguez made a good pitch to get Todd Frazier to pop out to Maldonado in foul territory for the second out and jumped ahead on Brandon Phillips.
Most runners wouldn't have tried to score on the 0-2 changeup that got away from Maldonado, but Hamilton is arguably the fastest runner in baseball. He scored just ahead of a tag attempt from Rodriguez to put the Reds ahead 2-1.
"I always tell myself if it gets anywhere on the grass around the home plate area, I've got to go there," Hamilton said. "I've got to score. Happened to get away from (Maldonado) a little bit, and I made a play. Rodriguez kind of throws a lot in the dirt because of the split fingers and the curveball, and sometimes you've got to be ready for it. If it bounced on the grass, I've got to get there. No matter what."
It was Rodriguez's first wild pitch since 2013 and just his third in the last three seasons.
"I think I had a chance to get a little more in front of it than what I did," Maldonado said. "That's a pitch I normally block, and the ball skidded a little bit more than I expected it. It's hard, especially when it's down like that ball was down. You don't know where it's going to bounce. At the same time, a man on third base and two outs ... I didn't do my job there. I have to block that pitch."
Because of Milwaukee's lack of wins, Rodriguez had pitched just four times prior to Wednesday. He appeared in the ninth inning of a tie game on April 8 against Colorado and surrendered a solo home run to Wilin Rosario.
"I'm mad about everything, dude," Rodriguez said. "It's miserable. Not getting your job done, it's miserable. It's bad. That's the bottom line."
Beating Cueto was going to be a tall order for the Brewers, but Nelson gave his team a chance to win by allowing just one run on three hits over eight strong innings.
Hamilton singled, stole second and scored on a single by Votto to put Cincinnati up 1-0 just two batters into the game. Thanks to three double plays turned behind him, Nelson faced the minimum over the next 7 2/3 innings.
"Outstanding ballgame," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said of Nelson. "His fastball command was great. He kept it down but went up when he needed to. His curveballs were great, a lot of really good sliders.
"It's a shame to get that kind of outing. I know who we're going against. You go against Cueto you know you're going to have trouble scoring runs. He makes pitches when he needs to. That makes it tough."
With the game tied at 1-all, pinch-hitter Logan Schafer led off the eighth inning with a double to the left-field corner off Cueto. Jean Segura sacrificed Schafer to third, putting the go-ahead run 90 feet away with one out.
Cueto struck out Elian Herrera for the second out before issuing a walk to Ryan Braun. On his 125th pitch of the night, the All-Star right-hander fanned Adam Lind to work out of the jam.
"It's obviously a tough loss," Roenicke said. "We had a good situation to score but we didn't and then they come back and score."
Despite the losses pile up, Roenicke feels the energy is still in the Brewers' clubhouse. The players still feel they are going to get through this stretch and get back on track.
But what is it going to take?
"It is a big mental thing," Nelson said. "Everybody here is professional and they handle their business the right way. Everybody is here working hard early. It is just one of those things. It is a long season. You just grind it out.
"You know you will break out of it. It is not a matter of if you are or aren't going to break out of it. You know you are. We're ready to break out of it, and we all think we will."
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