After taking the first game of the series from the Milwaukee Brewers, the Los Angeles Dodgers sent another pitcher to the mound for his Major League debut in Brock Stewart.
Milwaukee rookie, albeit a 31-year-old, Junior Guerra gave up a one-out double to Corey Seager, which extended his hitting streak to a season-high 12 games. After a Justin Turner fly out moved Seager to third, Adrian Gonzalez walked on five pitches to put runners on the corners.
However, Howie Kendrick grounded out to end a scoreless inning. With a large cheering section from his nearby home of Illinois, Stewart began the game on a high note.
The right-handed pitcher struck out Jonathan Villar and Scooter Gennett on well-located fastballs and wrapped up his first inning by inducing a Ryan Braun groundout.
In Stewart’s second inning of work, he received an unwelcome greeting to the Majors. Facing a shifted defense, Chris Carter got jammed on a fastball and rolled a grounder to the vacant hole at second base for an infield single.
On the very next pitch, Aaron Hill was jammed and dropped a bloop single into right field. Yasiel Puig bobbled his barehanded attempt, which allowed Carter to advance to third base. Kirk Nieuwenhuis then connected on for an opposite-field three-run home run to give the Brewers a 3-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Stewart, the damage didn’t end there. Guerra and Villar combined for back-to-back singles with two outs. Scooter Gennett then drew a walk to load the bases, and Braun hit a two-run double.
The Dodgers didn’t muster any offense in the third, with Guerra picking up a pair of strikeouts en route to retiring the side in order. Nieuwenhuis hit a one-out single the bottom of the third but was caught stealing on a strike ’em out, throw ’em out.
Justin Turner drew a leadoff walk in the fourth only to be stranded by Gonzalez, Kendrick and Trayce Thompson. However, the bigger news was Gonzalez getting ejected by third base umpire Dan Bellino. Gonzalez was upset over Bellino ruling he went around on a swing in his at-bat, and gestured to the umpire the swing he struck out on was one where he went around.
Stewart allowed a one-out single to Villar in the bottom of the fourth, but benefitted from Scooter Gennett’s line drive being snagged by Scott Van Slyke, who then steped on first base to end the inning on a double play.
A Puig leadoff single in the fifth was quickly erased as A.J. Ellis grounded into a double play. Stewart then struck out to end the inning. After retiring Braun, Stewart ended a 1-2-3 fifth inning on consecutive strikeouts.
Stewart finished with five runs allowed and seven strikeouts on 95 pitches over five innings. Guerra continued to sail through the game in the sixth, retiring the Dodgers in order to keep the Brewers ahead by a comfortable margin at 5-0.
Braun lined a two-run home run to right field off Chris Hatcher in the seventh to extend the Brewers’ lead. Adding insult to injury, Puig came away with a limp after crashing into the fence, seemingly unaware of his proximity to it.
Guerra completed an eighth scoreless inning of work then gave the ball to Michael Blazak who retired the side in order in the ninth to wrap up the Brewers’ 7-0 victory. The Dodgers finished with just two hits, none of which came after the fifth inning. The shutout loss was their fourth of the season.
