Brewers 8, Diamondbacks 2: Koching Up Batting Practice

Record: 25-18. Pace: 94-68. Change on 2017: +0.

The good news is that I did not get rear ended on the way to the ballpark today. That’s progress. It also only cost me $8 and a day off of work to attend the game. Trending in the right direction. The bad news you ask? Matt Koch had his rear end (ahahaha...) handed to him in an 8-2 loss in the rubber match. By the time his outing concluded, his ERA skyrocketed from 2.43 to 4.06! He allowed 4 home runs in a pitcher friendly Chase Field, at least this season, so there will be a candle light vigil for his ERA+/ERA- later tonight.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this loss is that it was his first start this month which did not come against the opposing team’s top of the rotation arm. Koch’s opponent was Brandon Woodruff who entered today’s start with an ERA of 8.03. Woodruff was the Brewers’ 7th best prospect last season according to Baseball America, but was making only his 11th career start and coming off an outing where he was rocked by Colorado. Enter the buzzsaw that is the Arizona Diamondbacks offense!... It would have been a perfect opportunity for them to break out of this horrendous slump, but Woodruff held them to a single hit, a 2 run home run in the first inning from Daniel Des-I’m going to carry the entire offense on my back-calso, or whatever you kids call him now. The Diamondbacks only managed 4 hits in today’s matinee game striking out 11 times to go with 4 walks. Arizona went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, but you could have fooled me if you said they even had that many opportunities.

Matt Koch was hit exceptionally hard today continuing a trend from his previous two starts in which his batted ball profile shows a hard contact rate north of 52%.

Jeff tweeted that out in the Brewers’ half of the 2nd inning if memory serves me correct which essentially tells you all that you need to know. After walking Lorenzo Cain as the first batter of the game, Koch dispatched Christian Yelich and Jesus Aguilar on a tapper to home and fly out to right field. It appeared Cain was going to be left stranded at first after the leadoff walk, but Travis Shaw and Domingo Santana blasted back-to-back home runs to quickly make it 3-0 in favor of the road team. All with two outs in the 1st inning. For a fleeting moment, it appeared we would be in store for a slugfest when Descalso deposited his 2 run shot in right field in the bottom of the 1st, but that would be all Arizona could muster.

The onslaught against Matt Koch continued in the 2nd inning, again coming with two outs in the frame. Lorenzo Cain got it started again with a sharp line drive single over the outstretched glove of Ketel Marte. Yelich followed that up with a 2 run homer of his own to again put Milwaukee ahead by 3 runs. After 2 innings of play, there had already been 4 home runs hit between the two teams. Tyler Saladino added another to that tally in the 4th with a blast off the batter’s eye well above the home run line.

Koch was pulled from the game in the 5th inning after allowing a line single to Aguilar and a double to Shaw putting runners on second and third with no outs. T.J. McFarland took the call in relief but could not prevent both inherited runners from scoring. For those of you not keeping score at home, that meant Koch was charged with 8 earned runs for the game. That’s one less than he had allowed all season up to that point. McFarland, Jorge De La Rosa, and Andrew Chafin combined for 4 ²⁄₃ innings in relief and none of them charged with allowing a run. McFarland was the only man of the three to allow a baserunner by giving up a hit and a walk in his 2 ²⁄₃ innings.

The loss today concluded a 1-7 homestand for the Diamondbacks who are now 5-10 in the month of May with a run differential of -24. They will now begin a three city road trip which will take them through the New York Mets, Milwaukee, and the Oakland Athletics. Maybe some time away from Chase Field will point the offense back in the proper direction.

Fangraphs

World Series Champion: Daniel Descalso, 10.2%

Probably belongs in AAA: Matt Koch, -38.6%

Total comments: 576

Total commenters :25

Commenter list: AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, DBacksEurope, DORRITO, EB Beaumont, GuruB, Imstillhungry95, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, MrMrrbi, Renin, ShirtOffYourBack, Smurf1000, Sprankton, Xerostomia, david.munter, edbigghead, gamepass, hotclaws, megnetic, piratedan7, shoewizard

DC blew everyone out of the water in comment count not surprising in the least bit with today’s start time.

The comment of the day came in the postgame from our fearless leader.

Keegan will be along with the recap when he gets back from Chase. If he hasn’t paused to burn the place down...

I blame myself for this loss. My girlfriend and I agreed we would leave early in the event of a blowout in order for me to obtain an appraisal for my still damaged motor vehicle. Guess I should have specified which direction the blowout went. Without a glimmer of hope for the home team, we departed for the collision center at the conclusion of the 7th inning.