'Frustrating night' for Houser vs. Twins

MINNEAPOLIS -- Heading on the road after a successful homestand, the Brewers looked to keep their run going in Minnesota. But unfamiliarity with the Twins’ inexperienced pitching staff and some missed locations on pitches have halted the momentum.

Adrian Houser’s second game back from COVID-19 didn’t go as smoothly as his first, and Milwaukee struggled against another left-handed starter in Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Twins at Target Field.

“We’ve been consistent and we’ve won games in a lot of different ways because I think we’re pretty well-rounded,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “In this stretch, unfortunately, we pitched last night pretty well and didn’t score, and we gave up six tonight -- it’s tough to win when you give up six. Offensively, I thought we were OK today. But I think we’re capable of more. We’ve just got to keep at it and salvage the series tomorrow.”

The Brewers lost their third straight game -- their first such streak since the All-Star break -- and the series after winning five consecutive sets. They’re now just 4-10 against the American League Central this season.

“Right now, we’re just not getting one hit that we need, or not making a play, or not making a pitch that we need to,” said Jace Peterson, who had two hits. “It’s us collectively. My money’s on us tomorrow. I feel like the guys know what we need to do, and we’re going to come out and play baseball tomorrow.”

Houser (7-6) allowed five runs in five-plus innings, giving up five hits and three walks with four strikeouts. His command particularly waned in the fourth, when he surrendered four runs. One scored when he hit Andrelton Simmons with the bases loaded and another followed with a bases-loaded walk to Luis Arraez.

“It was a little strange because he got some quick outs, and his stuff was good and some soft contact, then he just lost the strike zone on a couple hitters,” Counsell said of Houser. “The ball just got away from him, in mostly and kind of down. A little hard to figure it out, and it ended up costing us.”

After the Twins' four-spot in the fourth, the Crew came back with its own four-run frame in the fifth. But Houser loaded the bases again three batters into the sixth. Minnesota then scored the go-ahead run on a Simmons double-play ball off reliever Brent Suter.

Houser, who went 3 1/3 innings in his last outing on Aug. 22 against Washington, made 94 pitches in his second game back from the COVID IL.

"Getting back into the groove of things, getting the timing and the mechanics. You know, not quite all the way back to where I was before the COVID stuff,” Houser said. “Almost there, feeling better. I was feeling good in the bullpen before the game, getting stuff figured out, so there's definitely stuff to build off of and work on from here. But definitely a frustrating night.”

The Brewers put up four runs in the fifth off Minnesota starter Charlie Barnes, who kept Milwaukee off balance much like Andrew Albers did on Friday.

Lorenzo Cain started the inning with a walk and Rowdy Tellez singled. Manny Piña plated Cain with an RBI single and Peterson added another single to score Tellez. Two additional runs scored on Christian Yelich’s sacrifice fly to right and subsequent throwing error by Miguel Sanó.

“Velo-wise, when you look at the numbers and you look up there, you’re not blown away with 98,” Peterson said of Barnes and Albers. “But both of those guys, their ball plays up a good bit. They definitely were similar and they definitely attacked us similar.”

But the scoring would end there and the frustration of the night showed again when Tellez was ejected after arguing with home-plate umpire Jeremy Riggs when he struck out to end the sixth. Bench coach Pat Murphy was also ejected before the game started.

“Rowdy just apparently went too far in his conversation with Riggs, and I guess the same with Pat before the game,” Counsell said.