Brewers 4, Rockies 3: At long last, Milwaukee wins a close game in its house of horrors

DENVER -- Coors Field, despite being home to one of the perennial worst teams in baseball, has been the Milwaukee Brewers’ personal house of horrors.

The Brewers, no matter how good a team they have been in recent history, have made a pattern of coming to the capital of Colorado, breathing in the mile-high air and playing a wild ballgame capped with an agonizing finish.

Tuesday night, Milwaukee once again appeared to be headed down the hallway in the haunted house with a trap door at the end, the same one they have stumbled into time and time again in recent years when facing the Colorado Rockies on the road.

Instead, the ninth inning was an exercise in exorcism.

The Brewers rallied from a run behind in the ninth inning, taking the lead on a two-out, two-strike hit by pitch drawn by Rhys Hoskins with the bases loaded, and getting a lockdown save from Trevor Megill to pick up a 4-3 win and snap a six-game losing streak in Denver.

On an evening when the Brewers, who left 12 on base, struggled to get the big hit, they got hit.

"Give our guys credit," manager Pat Murphy said. "This has been a tough place for us to pull off a victory."

The victory also kept Milwaukee from suffering an astonishing seventh final at-bat loss in its last 15 games at Coors. The offense picked up relief ace Bryan Hudson, who has been dominant all season but allowed a go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth.

Recalling the events from the laundry list of those nightmarish games is not for the faint of a Wisconsinite's heart.

There was the blown save and walk-off homer to crush the Brewers' division title hopes. The blown five-run lead in the eighth to only accelerate the free fall of September 2022. The five-run seventh and four-run eighth to cough up a four-run lead last year. Even Monday night featured a blown save and subsequent walk-off loss.

"It’s part of the league. We have to do it," Murphy said. "We have to play them here. We’ve asked to get the games moved but they wouldn’t do it. This is a beautiful stadium in a beautiful place. They have great fans that come out and support them. I love that. It’s tough on our guys, it really is."

Quality at-bats give the Brewers the lead in the ninth

Fifty-five pitches. Seven different two-strike counts. One gritty rally in the ninth.

The Brewers turned the tides in the ninth against the Rockies bullpen by gutting out long, grinding plate appearances one after another.

"It’s contagious, right?" Hoskins said. "I think the saying goes, ‘Hitting is contagious’, but I think it’s the same thing about those type of at-bats, too. You see guys locked in and see guys try to pass the baton to get it to the next guy. When you see that kind of buy-in for the whole group, it’s easy to want to be a part of and try to do the same thing."

Trailing by a run, Andruw Monasterio and Brice Turang led the inning off by reaching base after getting to a full count against Rockies right-hander Nick Mears. Following a pop out by William Contreras, Christian Yelich poked an infield single, again on a full count pitch, that was deflected by Mears to load the bases for Willy Adames, who drove an 0-2 pitch to center for a game-tying sacrifice fly.

"That’s it. You just stay in the present," Murphy said. "Pitch by pitch. It sounds cliche but just stay in the present. You have to be mentally tough. You really have to be mentally tough to stay in the present and not leave the zone. Willy Adames’ big at-bat. Down, 0-2. Stay in the present and just doing what he had to do."

Garrett Mitchell delivered a quality plate appearance by battling back from 0-2 in the count to draw a walk, loading the bases and leading the Rockies to bring in Justin Lawrence for Mears. The new reliever, just as Mears had done, struggled to put a batter away after going ahead 0-2, plunking Hoskins in the elbow with a two-strike pitch to give the Brewers a 4-3 lead.

Once again, the Rockies rallied late to grab a lead

It seemed headed in the wrong direction for Milwaukee thanks to the same old story.

Late in a game at Coors Field, the Brewers made a couple of mistakes and the Rockies punished them for it. This time, those came in the form of a walk, throwing error and poorly located fastball to Colorado's hottest hitter.

Hudson, who has been unshakeable this year out of the bullpen, walked the leadoff batter Ryan McMahon, though he certainly didn't get the benefit of any close calls from home plate umpire Brian O'Nora. With one out, William Contreras tried to back-pick the runner at first but threw it short and first baseman Rhys Hoskins was unable to knock it down, moving McMahon to second. Hudson then threw a fastball right down the middle for Doyle, who smacked his fifth extra-base hit of the series with a double to center to score McMahon.

Rob Zastryzny, who made his Brewers debut as the opener Monday, came in and escaped the inning by getting Charlie Blackmon to fly out, ultimately allowing him to earn the win.

"Rob Z coming in there, that was big (guts)," Megill said. "That was awesome."

Colorado sky helps Brewers tie the game

With a runner on third and one out in the seventh, a Brice Turang pop-up was lost in the sky by two Rockies outfielders, allowing the Brewers to score and tie the game. Turang's fly almost certainly wouldn't have been deep enough to score Jackson Chourio had it been caught, but both centerfielder Brenton Doyle and rightfielder Hunter Goodman couldn't track it and it fell in the grass.

While those two outfielders helped the Brewers out, the Rockies' third later burned the visitors. Leftfielder Nolan Jones threw Turang out on the plate for the final out of the inning, preventing the go-ahead run from scoring with a 100 mph assists. Jones owns the two fastest outfield assists of the year in the majors, with both coming against the Brewers over the last two nights.

Dallas Keuchel gives the Brewers quality

The Brewers elevated the pitch count of Rockies starter Ryan Feltner, but only got one run out of it through three innings. Sal Frelick's bloop single in the second brought home Willy Adames from second, but the Brewers were otherwise 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position against Feltner.

Colorado, meanwhile, really only put two big swings against Brewers starter Dallas Keuchel, with both coming in the second. Brenton Doyle hit his third homer of the series to lead off the inning, then Jacob Stallings tripled to right-center and scored on a sacrifice fly.

Keuchel made it through 5 1/3 innings with four hits and two walks allowed but, induced a timely double play and struck out five in a well-timed bounceback from a shaky first start with the team last week against Texas. The Brewers initially had Enoli Paredes up in the bullpen in the fourth inning, but Keuchel was able to provide four more outs after that point.

"Guys like him aren’t the best in the world necessarily for their stuff, it’s between the ears," Megill said of Keuchel. "I’m sure he’s gone to the chalkboard and revisiting what he needs to do to be successful. I like what I’m seeing with him front-hipping righties and throwing changeups off of it, and keeping people off-balance right now."

Brewers schedule

Brewers at Rockies, 7:40 p.m. Wednesday. Milwaukee RHP Colin Rea (7-2, 3.61) vs. Colorado RHP Dakota Hudson (2-11, 5.84). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.

Brewers at Rockies, 7:10 p.m. Thursday. Milwaukee RHP Tobias Myers (5-2, 3.26) vs. Colorado RHP Cal Quantrill (6-6, 3.78). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 4, Rockies 3: At long last, Milwaukee wins a close game in its house of horrors