MILWAUKEE -- After tying the game in the ninth inning on an infield single and a seeing-eye single, the Milwaukee Brewers seemed ready to break through for their first win of the season.
Instead, Wilin Rosario's pinch-hit solo home run off closer Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the 10th inning Wednesday sent the Brewers to a frustrating 5-4 loss at Miller Park.
Milwaukee was last swept in its opening series in 2011 and had never opened a season by getting swept in three games at home.
"It is really tough, man," Brewers right fielder Gerardo Parra said. "That's baseball. Friday is another day. Everybody will be ready. We want to win Friday.
"The season is just starting. It is only three games. The only thing we have to do right now is to continue to play hard and see what happens Friday."
Parra and Jean Segura gave Milwaukee life in the ninth inning with a pair of one-out singles. Rockies second baseman D.J. LaMahieu robbed Scooter Gennett of a hit with a diving play in the hole, leaving the Brewers down to their final out.
Pinch-hitter Ryan Braun plated a run with a slow dribbler up along the third-base line, while Carlos Gomez tied the game with a single to right off Rockies closer LaTroy Hawkins.
Rodriguez retired LeMahieu to start the 10th and jumped ahead 0-2 on Rosario. The pinch-hitter laid off a curveball, fastball and changeup to run the count full. Rosario didn't miss a 3-2 fastball out over the middle of the plate, blasting a 425-foot homer to center.
"He had a great at-bat," Rodriguez said. "I got ahead of him 0-2. I threw pitches close to make him chase, but he didn't. In that situation you can't be walking people with the top of the order coming up and how they are swinging the bat. You have to get him out. He got a good pitch to hit and hit it out."
Rodriguez faltered in a tie game Wednesday, a trend that began last season when he posted a 4.50 ERA in non-save situations.
"That's a closer's job," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "When you are tied and you are at home, that's his job. We just got into a count and threw a good fastball hitter a fastball. The home run killed us."
Wily Peralta was cruising along into the seventh inning with a 2-1 lead before Corey Dickerson hit an 0-2 hanging slider for a game-tying solo home run. But the young right-hander limited a red-hot Rockies lineup to just two runs over seven innings in his first start of the season, keeping a struggling Brewers offense in the game.
"They've been swinging," Peralta said. "They don't miss anything. One mistake you pay for. They've been really hot. That mistake cost us the game, pretty much.
"When you just have a one-run lead, you can't make a mistake."
An inning later, Carlos Gonzalez hit a 466-foot, two-run homer off Brewers reliever Jonathan Broxton to give the Rockies a 4-2 lead.
With lefties Charlie Blackmon and Gonzalez set to lead off the eighth, the inning was better set up for left-hander Will Smith. But Roenicke turned the ball over to his setup man.
"Right now we've decided Broxton is going to be the eighth-inning pitcher," Roenicke said. "If it changes, we have to have that conversation to match up the seventh and eighth. We have three guys we like there. Maybe we'll try to match it up better, but we like Brox. That's not going to happen very often. But there's no question it was set up better for a lefty."
An off day Thursday may allow the Brewers to regroup before they begin a stretch of 22 consecutive games against National League Central opponents Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
With its next nine games against division favorites Pittsburgh and St. Louis, Milwaukee needs to start playing better baseball to avoid a disastrous start to 2015.
"It is tough, but you have to stay positive," Rodriguez said. "It is only the first series. We have to bounce back on Friday."
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