Brewers bullpen costs Lohse another victory

RICH ROVITO
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) — For the fourth time this year, a blown save by the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen cost Kyle Lohse a victory. The veteran starting pitcher quickly shrugged off his team’s late game collapse that led to a loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.

“It was tough, but this team will bounce back. We’ll forget about it tomorrow and come back and do what we’ve got to do,” Lohse said. “It’s always tough when you have the lead like that, but you don’t go perfect for the whole year holding leads. Those things happen. We’ll get over it.”

The Orioles rallied to tie the game with two outs in the ninth off Brewers’ closer Francisco Rodriquez. A single by newly acquired Nick Hundley with two outs in the 10th off Rob Wooten (1-2) gave Baltimore a 7-6 victory.

“He had the one bad inning but other than that I thought he threw the ball well,” Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said of Lohse.

The Orioles broke through in the third against Lohse. Adam Jones, who has safely reached base in 20 consecutive games, drove in two runs with a one-out triple. Nelson Cruz followed with a run-scoring single, extending the Orioles lead to 3-1 before the Brewers rallied to take the lead.

“It wasn’t even that bad. I made that one pitch to Jones that was kind of in his swing path,” Lohse said. “Every ground ball seemed to find a hole. After that, I was back to normal and was just doing my thing.”

Lohse gave up four runs on nine hits over 6 2-3 innings. He struck out five and didn’t issue a walk.

“It was a tough day all around,” Roenicke said. “The bullpen didn’t throw as well as they had been, which is going to happen. But we had plenty of chances offensively to get guys in. It was a ball game where nothing went right.

Jonathan Schoop hit two home runs for Baltimore. Down 6-4 with two outs in the ninth, Schoop’s second homer cut it to one. After pinch-hitter Delmon Young singled, Nick Markakis hit a game-tying double.

Darren O’Day (2-0) pitched a scoreless inning of relief to get the win. Zach Britton pitched out of trouble in the 10th to record his third save in three opportunities.

Khris Davis and Lyle Overbay hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth for Milwaukee. Davis had four hits and a walk in five plate appearances.

“I’m back on track at the plate,” David said. “I’ve been working on some things and I had a discussion with (Roenicke), and he reminded me of some things — that I belong here and I should be confident. Just hearing that is a big boost for me.

Schoop’s first homer came in the seventh and made it 6-4. He came into the game with just three homers on the season.

Baltimore starter Chris Tillman gave up six runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out seven.

Notes: Milwaukee and Baltimore met for the first time since 2008. … The Brewers selected the contract of infielder Irving Falu from Triple-A Nashville to take the roster spot of pitcher Jimmy Nelson, who was optioned to Nashville. Milwaukee infielder Jeff Bianchi accepted his outright assignment to Nashville. … Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said reliever Jim Henderson’s rehab outing for Double-A Huntsville on Friday didn’t go as well as the team had hoped. “He felt a little irritation (in his shoulder). I don’t think it’s a huge setback, but we were really hoping for a clean outing.” The Brewers’ former closer returned to Milwaukee to be examined by the team’s medical staff after a second scheduled outing on Sunday was scrapped. Baltimore’s Wei-Yin Chen will face Milwaukee’s Matt Garza in the second game of the three-game series on Tuesday.