The Los Angeles Dodgers snapped their three-game win streak on Monday as they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6, at Camelback Ranch. Clayton Kershaw had seven strikeouts over 3.2 shutout innings in his fourth start of the spring.
He began the game in odd fashion, issuing a leadoff walk to Keon Broxton. But Kershaw followed that with back-to-back strikeouts and a pop-up to end the inning. The three-time Cy Young Award winner faced another baserunner in the second inning, as Orlando Arcia doubled with one out.
A wild pitch put Arcia at third base with two outs, where he was stranded as Kershaw struck out Eric Sogard looking to end the inning. Kershaw made quick work of the Brewers in the third inning and was removed after allowing a two-out double to Jesus Aguilar in the fourth.
The extra-base hit in some part was due to Matt Kemp getting turned around a bit in left field. Adam Liberatore surrendered a single and walked the bases loaded before escaping the jam.
That officially closed the book on Kershaw, who extended his Spring Training scoreless streak to 9.2 innings. Overall, he’s allowed six hits, walked four and recorded 11 strikeouts. While he was lifted due to pitch count, Kershaw completed another inning in the bullpen.
For Liberatore, his struggles carried into the fifth inning. Ji-Man Choi singled and Broxton drew a walk, putting two on with nobody out. That brought on Malcom Culver, who retired Hernan Perez, but a costly throwing error on a pickoff attempt allowed Choi to score the Brewers’ first run.
Culver would recover after striking out Domingo Santana, followed by Broxton caught stealing home on the same play to end the inning.
Junior Guerra took the mound for the Brewers in what was his fifth outing of Cactus League play. He immediately created traffic on the base paths, as Andrew Toles led off the bottom half of the first with an opposite-field single.
Justin Turner advanced him to third base following his second double of the spring, putting a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. Matt Kemp couldn’t cash in on the scoring opportunity and reached on a fielder’s choice after third baseman Hernan Perez threw out Toles at home plate.
Despite the fortunate result, Guerra began to struggle with his command and forced in the Dodgers’ first run after issuing consecutive walks to Joc Pederson and Kiké Hernandez. Austin Barnes then reached base on a throwing error by Perez, which allowed Kemp and Pederson to score on the play, giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead at the end of one.
Guerra would find his groove in the middle innings and finished his outing with 2.2 shutout frames and 4.2 innings overall.
The Brewers took the lead in the sixth as Culver served up a two-out, two-strike grand slam to Ji-Man Choi, putting Milwaukee ahead 5-3. The Dodgers got one back in the bottom half of the inning though on a groundout by Solano.
Milwaukee got that run back in the seventh though, as Keston Hiura hit a leadoff home run off Tony Cingrani. The left-hander struck out two in his second Cactus League outing to complete the inning.
Justin De Fratus gave up one run in his two innings of work, and the Dodgers trailed 7-5 going into the bottom of the ninth.
They put up a good fight, scoring a run and putting the tying run at third with one out, but Errol Robinson and Wes Darvill both struck out to end the game.
