Twins 11, Brewers 8
Brewers now 45-34 (2nd)
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MILWAUKEE — It’s pretty easy to boil today’s 11-8 loss to the Minnesota Twins down to one inning and one player: The second inning and Bob McClure.
After neither team had a hit in the first, the Twins came out swinging in the second. After retiring rookie Kent Hrbek for his fourth consecutive out, McClure endured the following:
Engle (walk)
Laudner (walk)
Ward (single)
Gaetti (home run)
Castino (single)
Mitchell (single)
Dwight Bernard then relieved McClure and got the final two outs, but not until his inherited runners scored.
Down 6-0 in the second inning, the Brewers offense didn’t give up. They never do. They played up to Harvey’s Wallbangers standards, scoring eight runs on 13 hits, including home runs by Ed Romero (1), Robin Yount (14) and Ted Simmons (12).
Of course, even if your offense scores eight runs, when you spot the opposition six you have to expect your bullpen to allow fewer than two runs over 7 2/3 innings. That didn’t happen.
And not to bag on the bullpen, but other than Bernard they didn’t do their job. After Bernard held things together with only one earned run over 4 2/3 innings, Jamie Easterly allowed two runs in two innings and Rollie Fingers allowed two more in one inning. So, if you want to get technical… Really, all the Brewers needed was for Easterly and Fingers to shut out the Twins over the final three innings. If you want to assign some blame there, feel free.
The loss was the Brewers’ second in three games and their third in six. Not awful. But the Red Sox beat the Rangers 8-5, so the Brewers now trail by a full game.
Game Notes: Robin Yount, Ted Simmons and Charlie Moore each had three hits.