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Today’s Cactus League game gave us a good opportunity to get a first look at two pitchers who will figure prominently into the team’s plans this year, Chad Patrick (who started the game) and Trevor Megill (who was first out of the bullpen). The lineup also got a chance to test themselves against a 2025 All-Star in Royals starter Kris Bubic. Unlike their previous few games, in which the Brewers had scored at least five runs in five straight games, this was a low-scoring affair in which the Milwaukee offense had very little going.
But it didn’t look like that right at the beginning. The top of the Brewers’ order kept yesterday’s hit parade going: Luis Rengifo led off with a single off of Bubic, and after a Garrett Mitchell strikeout, Gary Sánchez and Akil Baddoo singled too, scoring Rengifo. Brock Wilken and Jesús Made struck out to end the inning, but Milwaukee was up 1-0 early.
Patrick greeted old friend Isaac Collins in the bottom of the frame by striking him out looking with a perfectly-placed cutter on the low inside corner. Patrick walked the next two batters but worked out of it, as Made made the play on a scalded Carter Jensen ground ball to second to end the inning. The Brewers got nothing in the second except for a two-out infield single from Luis Lara.
Josh Rojas led off the Royals’ second with a double, and he came around to score after a wild pitch and an RBI groundout. Michael Wacha entered for the Royals in the third and retired Mitchell, Sánchez, and Baddoo in order, with strikeouts of Mitchell and Baddoo. The bottom of the third was Megill’s inning: he got the first two, then issued a two-out walk to Jac Caglianone, but erased him with a pickoff. His fastball was sitting at 97-98, which seems encouraging for this point in the season.
Megill spoke to reporters about the outing after the game and said his elbow trouble from the end of last season is no longer an issue:
Milwaukee got some hard contact on Wacha in the fourth but had nothing to show for it. After he started the inning by striking out Wilken, Wacha gave up batted balls of 108 and 105 mph to Made and Jeferson Quero, respectively, but both resulted in outs. Grant Anderson replaced Megill, and the Royals were all over him; three of the first four batters he faced hit balls over 100 mph, the first of which was a Carter Jensen solo homer (Josh Rojas also lined out, and John Rave hit a single). But despite the hard contact, Jensen’s homer was the only run against Anderson, and the Royals led 2-1.
Cooper Pratt led off the fifth with a solid single, but nothing came of it; Lara struck out (on a ball that he unsuccessfully challenged), Rengifo grounded into a fielder’s choice, and Mitchell grounded out to second.
The Brewer pitcher in the fifth was Craig Yoho, and Collins rudely greeted him with a double to left. He scored when the next batter, Jonathan India, singled, but Yoho recovered to get Pasquantino, Caglianone, and Jensen in order to end the inning.
Little else happened after that. Neither team scored again, and the Brewers only got baserunners when Pratt was hit by a pitch in the seventh, when Mike Boeve walked and Eddys Leonard singled in the eighth, and when Ramón Rodríguez doubled and was followed by a Daniel Dickinson infield hit in the ninth. Peter Strzelecki, Jacob Waguespack, and Garrett Stallings pitched scoreless innings in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.
Not much of note offensively for Milwaukee today; eight hits, with the only extra-base hit being Rodríguez’s ninth-inning double, and no players with more than one hit. The pitching staff performed fairly well; Megill was the highlight, while Patrick, Yoho, and Anderson all allowed a run.
The Brewers are off tomorrow, then get back in action with an interesting little twist on Tuesday when they take on Great Britain’s World Baseball Classic team in an exhibition.