By Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel –
DENVER — The latter innings of games have been the Milwaukee Brewers’ primary downfall this season.
The last couple of nights at Coors Field, the inverse has proved true.
Left-hander Randy Wolf was tagged for four first-inning runs by the free-swinging Colorado Rockies on Tuesday, a deficit the Brewers were unable to overcome. Milwaukee made things interesting late but eventually fell, 8-6.
Throw in the three runs allowed by Mike Fiers in Monday’s 9-6 loss, and the Rockies have outscored the Brewers, 7-0, in the opening frame. And even with the thin air and a shaky Colorado pitching staff, Milwaukee’s offense couldn’t pick up the slack enough the rest of the way to compensate.
“They’ve been scoring a lot of runs in the first inning,” said Brewers manager Ron Roenicke. “We have to come in and really do a better job of commanding the ball and getting our off-speed stuff going early in the count, so we can get them off our fastballs.”
Through the first two games of the series the Rockies’ offense has stolen the show, banging out 30 hits.
And now for the second consecutive series against the two worst teams record-wise in the major leagues (Houston was the first), the Brewers go into the final game needing a win to avoid being swept.
“It’s disappointing,” said Roenicke, whose Brewers are 17-37 all-time at Coors Field. “I know there’s always struggles when we come here because of the runs that usually are scored. But we need to do a better job of shutting down their offense.”
Wolf’s first inning was very similar to Fiers’ on Monday.
Eric Young led off the bottom of the frame with a double and Josh Rutledge was hit by a pitch. Dexter Fowler — somewhat surprisingly — dropped down a bunt to move both runners into scoring position for cleanup man Carlos Gonzalez.
Gonzalez responded with a single to right to score Young and Rutledge and leave another runner in scoring position. Wilin Rosario followed with a double to right-center to score Gonzalez to make it 3-0.
Jordan Pacheco then got into the act, lacing a single down the first-base line to plate Gonzalez and extend Colorado’s lead to 4-0.
Wolf finally ended things by inducing a 6-4-3 double play from Chris Nelson.
The Brewers got on the board in the third when Carlos Gomez reached on an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error by Rutledge. Wolf bunted him up to third and Gomez came in to score on a squib infield single by Norichika Aoki.
The Rockies got that run right back in the bottom of the third. Fowler singled and moved to third on another single by Gonzalez, then scored on a bloop single to short right by Pacheco.
The teams then traded solo home runs in the fifth, with Martin Maldonado sending his seventh out to left off Tyler Chatwood and Rosario taking Wolf over the wall in center to make it 6-2.
Wolf was done after the fifth, having allowed 10 hits, six earned runs and a walk while striking out just one in falling to 3-9. He’s won just once since April and has a 7.16 earned-run average in three August starts.
“Nothing is going right for him,” Roenicke said. “He’s not throwing as bad as these numbers show. I know he’s not throwing as well as he’d like to. But later on, after that first inning, I thought he threw the ball OK.”
Jose Veras relieved Wolf in the sixth and gave up a leadoff double to Nelson and then a booming two-run homer to right by Young to stretch Colorado’s lead to 8-2.
The Brewers added a run in the seventh and then threatened to make things interesting in the eighth.
Jean Segura and pinch hitter Travis Ishikawa led off with singles against Josh Roenicke, who was then pulled for Matt Reynolds. The left-hander came in and got Aoki to foul out to first for the first out and then was replaced by Matt Belisle.
Rickie Weeks reached on an error to load the bases for the heart of the Brewers’ order. But Ryan Braun struck out swinging and Aramis Ramirez struck out looking to end the threat.
Milwaukee again threatened in the ninth, scoring three runs on five hits off Rex Brothers and Rafael Betancourt to pull to within 8-6 with one out. Betancourt finally buckled down, though, and got Weeks to pop out to left and Braun to fly out to center to end the game.
“In this ballpark, you should always feel like you’re going to score a lot of runs,” said Roenicke. “Our offense, no matter how far we get behind, should always feel like we can come back and score runs. It’s a little different when you go to some ballparks and that doesn’t happen.
“But here, four runs down, so what? We’ve got a good offense. We should feel like we can come back.”
