Twins Lose 10-4 To Lohse On Brewers' Big 1st Inning
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Minnesota Twins starter Trevor May never expected the game to unravel in the first inning. It did.
Kyle Lohse became the 14th pitcher in major league history to beat all 30 active franchises after he pitched six effective innings and benefited from Milwaukee's six-run first inning to get his first win since May 16 as the Brewers beat the Twins 10-4 on Friday night.
"It's pretty cool," Lohse, a 36-year-old right-hander, said. "These guys tell me that I'm old and I've been around, but that's only the third time I've faced them so it's not like I've faced them a whole bunch of times and haven't beaten them."
While Lohse took satisfaction in the meaningful victory, Twins manager Paul Molitor knew it had slipped away in the bottom of the first.
"They came out swinging," Molitor said of the Brewers' 12-hit attack. "Second pitch, curveball, home run."
That was Gerardo Parra's home run to tie the game at 1 in the bottom of the first after Brian Dozier's leadoff home run had put the Twins up 1-0. Jonathan Lucroy followed with a double and scored on Ryan Braun's single to make it 2-1. Braun took second on Adam Lind's base hit. It might have stayed a one-run deficit for the Twins, but a simple bouncer back to the pitcher went awry and the Brewers were ahead for good.
May (4-6) threw the ball away trying to make a play at second on a fielder's choice, allowing Braun to score.
May got mixed up on whom he wanted to throw the ball to after fielding Carlos Gomez's comebacker. May mistakenly tried to hit shortstop Eduardo Nunez who was running toward second for a force play and threw the ball behind him.
"Dozier was at second," May said. "He was standing there. When you have the wrong target, it's tough to be fully committed to throwing to it."
Molitor said that May had a chance to get out of the inning without any more damage.
"He gets a checked-swing comebacker," Molitor said. "He looks at third, then he forgot who was covering. It really put us in a hole. There's no mulligans in baseball. You can't go back."
Lohse added the last run on a sacrifice fielder's choice that ended May's night. Alex Meyer took over in his major league debut and retired the 10th and 11th batters of the inning on fly balls to end it.
"The error was big," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "That's a possible double play, so it's a big play. We had a chance to break it open in the first and tonight we did."
May was charged with six runs — five earned — and six hits while getting just one out in the first inning.
Lohse (4-9) wrote his name into baseball lore after the 13-year veteran's first victory in three career starts against the club he broke into the majors with in 2001. He spent six seasons there before being acquired by Cincinnati for right-hander Zach Ward on July 31, 2006.
Lohse allowed four runs and six hits, struck out two and walked one. He had lost three straight starts and was 0-5 with a 7.59 ERA in his last six. He had not won since beating the Mets 7-0 in New York.
Lohse gave up homers to Dozier and Trevor Plouffe, increasing his total to 19 allowed — second-most in the majors — in 16 starts. Colorado's Kyle Kendrick has allowed 21.
Aramis Ramirez and Scooter Gennett also homered to power the Brewers and help spoil the return of fan favorite Molitor, who is in his first year as manager of the Twins. The Hall of Famer spent the majority of his 21-year career in Milwaukee.
Eddie Rosario hit into a run-scoring fielder's choice in the fourth and Plouffe hit a two-run shot in the sixth.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Twins: RHP Ricky Nolasco briefly threw off the rubber Friday. "It didn't go well," Molitor said. "My indication is it didn't take long for them to realize the symptoms are still the same. We just can't seem to find the solution to getting him back in the right direction." Nolasco has been on the 15-day DL since early April with right elbow inflammation.
Brewers: Gomez and Ramirez were back in the starting lineup after getting Thursday off. Gomez entered the finale against New York as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning of a 2-0 loss. ... LF Khris Davis, on the 15-day DL with a torn meniscus in his right knee, ran the bases during batting practice. Counsell said Davis might be ready for a rehab assignment, possibly as early as next week, if he continues to improve.
UP NEXT
Twins: RHP Kyle Gibson (4-6) looks to snap a three-game losing streak facing the Brewers for the second time this season. He did not figure in the 10-5 home loss on June 5.
Brewers: RHP Matt Garza (4-9) makes his second start of the season against Minnesota. He beat the Twins 4-2 at Target Field on June 6.
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