The Brewers defeated the Rockies 4-0 to take a 2-0 series lead in the NLDS. Tyler Anderson was great, the bullpen was shaky, and the offense sent me to a thesaurus to find synonyms for “anemic” — we’ll go with “lifeless” here. The offense was lifeless.
Missed opportunities
There were a few. The Rockies had runners on first and second with two outs in the first inning. Trevor Story struck out to end the inning. In the same situation in the third, except, with just one out, Nolan Arenado struck out and Carlos González grounded out to end the inning. The worst came in the seventh. Ian Desmond hit an infield single to lead off the inning. He stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error. That put a runner on third base with nobody out in a one-run game. Chris Iannetta and Matt Holliday struck out in poor at bats, and Charlie Blackmon lined out to end the inning.
In sum:
this is a clean break pic.twitter.com/gZgnGr1gul
— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) October 5, 2018
Sliver of silver lining
Tyler Anderson was excellent. Really, that lining should be far more silver than a sliver, but when the stakes are so high, it’s hard to focus on that. Anderson gave up a run and four hits while striking out five over six innings. The blemish came on back-to-back doubles in the fourth inning, which led to a run. It was just what the Rockies needed from Anderson.
The bullpen, aside from Scott Oberg, wasn’t as good. Harrison Musgrave, Seunghwan Oh, and Chris Rusin got the three outs in the eighth inning, but in the process gave up three runs as well.
What’s next
Tomorrow’s an off day, and the Rockies and Brewers will meet for game three in Denver on Sunday at 2:37 MT. As of now, Wade Miley and German Márquez are the scheduled starters.