Beertown 7, South Side 2: There Goes the Undefeated Spring!

Baseball was back! Way, way, way, back in the case of four blasts by the Milwaukee Brewers, on NRI day at Camelback. Turns out there’s a reason why the Sox non-roster-invitee pitchers are in that category.

But also far enough back in the case of a launch by Adam Engel.

Well, OK, that wasn’t the actual blast, but it was a nice chest bump for the first game of spring.

Eaton’s two-run shot in the bottom of the first followed a three-run rocket by Keston Hiura and it looked like we might be in for an 18-12, six-inning pitchers’ duel. Unfortunately, while the Brewers tried to do their part by homering three more times — one a crush job to dead center by our old friend Avi García — the Sox offense pretty much shut down except for back-to-back singles in the sixth by Danny Mendick and Blake Rutherford, which led to nothing because Mendick was tossed out at third by Avi.

Nonetheless, there were many things worth being happy about:

1. The game doesn’t count.
2. The only injury was a paper cut onslaught suffered by Steve Stone. He’s day-to-day. Or maybe page-to-page. Jake Burger didn’t tear anything.
3. The Sox actually drew three walks, two by Andrew Vaughn. Vaughn is supposed to have a good eye, which he didn’t need in these two cases because nothing was close.
4. Vaughn made a nice stab of a liner to his left at first, Engel made a good play in center.
5. Tim Anderson started up where he left off last fall, with a single to right in the first.
6. Yoán Moncada showed no post-Covid drag in stealing a base.
7. For perhaps the first time in his career, Zack Collins didn’t need to chase a single pitch back to the screen.

On the negative side, the Brewers threw mostly lefties, which the Sox — even Sox wannabes — are supposed to kill.

Not a good day to get a read on whether the ball is still juiced. It was windy, the Brewers dingers were absolute rockets that would have gone out with a Nerf ball, and Engel’s wasn’t particularly close, either.

Sox play the Angels tomorrow, and are back on TV against Texas on Tuesday at 2:05 Central.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Mitch’s work, or if you’d like to purchase original drawings or prints, contact him via Twitter (@soxsketcher), Instagram (@southsidesharpie), or by e-mail at southsidesharpie@gmail.com. Thanks for supporting local artists!