MILWAUKEE (AP) — Andrew Chafin and Abner Uribe combined to allow three straight bases-loaded walks in the 10th inning and the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers lost 7-3 to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
Colorado’s Nolan Jones went deep twice for the first multi-homer game of his career. Other homers came from Colorado’s Elias Díaz and Milwaukee’s William Contreras and Andruw Monasterio.
But the game was decided by the Milwaukee bullpen's inability to find the plate in the 10th inning. Chafin (2-4) and Uribe didn’t throw a strike in any of the three bases-loaded walks.
Chafin walked Michael Toglia to start the 10th before Brenton Doyle loaded the bases with a bunt single down the third base line. Harold Castro, who began the inning as the automatic runner on second, scored the go-ahead run when Chafin walked Cole Tucker on four pitches.
At that point, Uribe came in for Chafin and promptly walked Ezequiel Tovar on three pitches — Uribe started the at-bat with a pitch-clock violation — to score another run. Uribe then walked Ryan McMahon on four pitches as the Rockies increased their lead to 6-3.
Tucker scored Colorado's final run on Jones' sacrifice fly.
Colorado's Justin Lawrence retired the side in order in the bottom of the 10th to seal the victory. Matt Koch (1-0) earned the win with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
The Rockies trailed 2-1 before Díaz and Jones greeted reliever Elvis Peguero with back-to-back homers to start the seventh inning. Jones also homered in the fourth off Milwaukee’s Wade Miley, the only run he allowed in his 300th career start.
Díaz sent a 1-1 sinker over the left-field wall for a game-tying, 404-foot blast. Jones followed with a 368-foot drive to right off a 1-0 slider.
Peguero had allowed just two homers in 45 2/3 innings this season before giving up the back-to-back shots.
Milwaukee responded quickly as Monasterio led off the bottom of the seventh with his second homer of the season, sending a 1-1 slider over the left-field wall.
Monasterio’s homer came off Rockies starter Kyle Freeland, who then allowed a Joey Wiemer single before leaving the game. Brent Suter, who pitched for the Brewers from 2016-22, came out of the bullpen and ended the threat.
Freeland struck out four, walked none and allowed eight hits and three runs in six innings. Miley also worked six innings and struck out two while giving up two hits, three walks and one run.
Colorado’s back-to-back homers in the seventh came after the Brewers had pulled ahead in the sixth on Mark Canha’s two-out RBI double to right. Before that hit, Canha had been 4 for 27 since the Brewers acquired him from the New York Mets last week.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rockies: 2B Brendan Rodgers wasn't in the lineup Tuesday after tweaking a hamstring a night earlier on a ball he fielded up the middle in the first inning. Rockies manager Bud Black said there's a possibility Rodgers also won't play Wednesday. Black is optimistic the issue won't require a stint on the injured list.
Brewers: 1B Carlos Santana was scratched from the starting lineup before the game due to an illness.
UP NEXT
RHP Chris Flexen (1-5, 7.82 ERA) starts for the Rockies, and RHP Adrian Houser (4-3, 4.19) pitches for the Brewers in the series finale Wednesday afternoon.
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