TOP PLAY (WPA)
After All-Star outfielder A.J. Pollack set the table with a leadoff walk to start the fourth inning, Jake Lamb launched a bomb to straight-away center field that bounced off the top of the wall and back into play, plating Pollack to break the scoreless tie (+175 WPA). Future Cub Gerardo Parra bobbled the ball twice (an issue we brought up on Friday), which allowed Lamb to take third easily on the play. Garza fortunately prevented any further damage by striking out a pair of batters, sandwiched around an infield pop-out. However, against Brewers offense that can suddenly turn anemic, the single run was all Arizona would need.
BOTTOM PLAY (WPA)
Following a double to deep center by rookie outfielder Yasmany Tomas, the Diamondbacks threatened early with runners on second and third with only one out in the bottom of the second inning. With noted defensive wizard Matt Garza on the mound (or something like that), the Diamondbacks called for a safety squeeze from Nick Ahmed. The Diamondbacks’ shortstop showed bunt, then pulled back on a ball inside from Garza. With the defense now on alert for a squeeze, Ahmed went ahead and tried again anyway. He dropped a poor bunt right at Garza, who managed to shovel the ball right to Martin Maldonado — as opposed to tossing the ball into the fourth row — well ahead of the arrival of Lamb at the plate, effectively ending the threat (-.090 WPA). Oscar Hernandez followed with a weak grounder to third to keep the game scoreless.
KEY MOMENT
Immediately following that half-inning in which the Diamondbacks squandered a golden scoring opportunity, the Brewers responded with one of their own in the top of the third. Garza led off the inning with a single to right, and the still-blazing-hot Parra followed up with a single to center to put runners on the corners with no one out. The Brewers needed a big hit, or even just a clutch sacrifice fly, to break up their recent offensive funk, but Jonathan Lucroy failed to deliver. He sent a weak fly to right that wasn’t deep enough to score Garza from third. Craig Counsell called for the infamous contact play on Ryan Braun’s ensuing at-bat, and Garza was thrown out by 10 feet at home when Braun chopped a sharp grounder to third. Khris Davis struck out swinging to officially end the threat. The Brewers would put runners in scoring position in the following two innings as well, but then failed to put a runner on base again until Maldonado walked with two outs in the ninth.
TREND TO WATCH
After a red-hot start to July that saw the Brewers win 13-of-17 while scoring 6.35 runs per game, the Brewers were shut out in consecutive games for (somewhat surprisingly) the first time this season. The good news for Brewers fans is that any notion that this team might have a puncher’s chance at making a run at the wild card that may have surfaced in the front office during their eight-game and four-game win streaks (each ended by Kyle Lohse), which could have prevented the team from making some necessary moves, has likely been wiped out. The bad news is that once those necessary moves have been made, the Brewers will be even worse on offense than they are now, and the team may not be very fun to watch over the next two months. July has been a reversed microcosm of the Brewers season so far, as the team is not nearly as good at they seemed to be at the beginning of the month, but probably not as bad as they have been over the past week.
COMING UP NEXT
The Brewers will conclude their West Coast swing with a trip to AT&T Park for a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. The world champions are red hot, having won 11 of their last 12 to climb within one game of the NL-West-leading Dodgers. The Brewers will inexplicably send Lohse back out on the mound Monday to face rookie Chris Heston, then Wily Peralta will make his return from the disabled list Tuesday to square off with Matt Cain. The series will conclude on Wednesday afternoon with Mike Fiers taking on Jake Peavy.