Brewers 7, White Sox 1: Fear & Loathing in Milwaukee

Welcome to Wisconsin, friends! Be sure to hit up the Jelly Belly Factory and the Mars Cheese Castle this weekend, one of which is disappointingly not made of cheese (up to you to pick the disappointment). Hopefully our manager is up on the differences between the AL and NL, so let’s get to it.

Freddy Peralta started the game lights-out, but on the flipside, Lucas Giolito didn’t look nearly as smooth. Either way, both pitchers got out of the inning unscathed. Peralta was a little shakier in the second, giving up a one-out double to Andrew Vaughn and then walking Leury García. Adam Engel grounded out and then with an intentional walk to Zack Collins, Giolito was up to bat. He struck out, because this is a National League game and don’t we all love the Get an Out Free card.

Giolito was shaky in the fourth. With one out, he loaded the bases for Rowdy Tellez by giving up two singles and a walk. Giolito’s changeup had been failing all night, and Tellez tagged Gio for a one-run single. Two fly outs later, the inning ended with the bases loaded and a 1-0 score. It could have gone better, but it also could have gone worse so ... draw?

Peralta, on an innings limit for the season, was out and replaced by Adrian Houser at the top of the fifth. I don’t know about anyone else, but I wasn’t mad to see Peralta leave. It appears that no one told White Sox offense, though, as they were acting like Peralta was still in and throwing his best stuff, so we slogged on with a 1-0 score to the bottom of the sixth.

With two outs in the sixth and a Tellez on second with two outs, TLR intentionally walked Tyrone Taylor to bring up Keston Huira, who was pinch-hitting. Giolito tried to pick off Tellez at second but no one told Leury García, so the throw almost went into center. Luckily, there was no damage done and Huira got taken down by the slider.

Let’s look at that last pitch again:

In a tale as old as time, the White Sox failed to capitalize with runners on base and ended the top of the seventh still scoreless. I hope someone tells them that it’s not golf, the lowest score isn’t the winner.

The bottom of the seventh brought in Aaron Bummer to a game that was already a bummer. After a single by Kolten Wong, Bummer walked two batters in a row to load the bases. He then gave up a fielder’s choice that scored a run, giving the Brewers a 2-0 lead. With two on and two outs in came Ryan Burr, sir, to save the day — and walked Luis Urias. It didn’t help that the umpire’s approach to both sides batting was just a big shrug, so who knows what the strike zone was actually supposed to be. No matter, Burr walked in a run, so we were at 3-0.

As an encore, Burr gave up a grand slam to Tyrone Taylor. A strikeout to Jackie Bradley Jr. got the White Sox out of the inning, but the most poignant moment when TLR got thrown out of the game in what looked like a casual conversation with the umpire (seriously, I was surprised they threw him out).

Here’s the thing, though: The umpire kind of stunk, but it’s hard to win games when you’re scoring zero runs.

So at the top of the eighth, Hunter Strickland came in. For those who don’t remember his time on the Giants, let me present this weird fight with Bryce Harper:

Vaughn hit a home run off of Strickland to make things 7-1.

However, the most interesting action from there came when Tim Anderson got thrown out by the umpire. All you could see on the broadcast was the umpire getting far closer to the dugout than necessary and Anderson (and Shelley Duncan) absolutely losing their minds, so let’s hope we find out more about that later. With the noise coming from the White Sox dugout at the home plate ump I was half expecting everyone to be ejected. Game’s over then, right?

Reynaldo López came in at the bottom of the eighth in relief, and thank god didn’t give anything else up. Into the ninth inning we went, the last chance the White Sox had to get six runs and tie things up.

Look at the headline and let me know how you think it went.

Seven days until the trade deadline closes and we badly need some relievers in the bullpen. Two would be nice, but at this point I’d take one, just for the sheer purpose of not walking in runs and loading the bases constantly. Yes, the White Sox bullpen was projected to be one of the best, but could we be getting used to it being terrible?

Just some thought starters for Rick Hahn, if he chooses to listen.