Easter rally falls short for Crew, sunk by late HR

MILWAUKEE -- Eric Thames got his Rob Deer impersonation just right, down to the fist held high in the air as he rounded the bases.

All that was missing for the Brewers was the victory.

Thames’ game-tying three-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning conjured memories of Deer’s game-tying three-run homer 32 years earlier on a sunny Easter Sunday at County Stadium. But Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger answered with a homer off Josh Hader in the ninth that sent the Brewers to a 6-5 loss at Miller Park and their first losing homestand in almost a year.

The ‘87 Brewers had a better outcome. Dale Sveum followed Deer’s homer with a two-run shot for a walk-off win over the Rangers for victory No. 12 of 13 in a row to begin that season for Team Streak. Whenever the Brewers play on Easter Sunday at home, that clip airs on the stadium scoreboard.

“I saw the highlight,” said Thames. “Especially on a holiday like today, that’s awesome. You could tell the cameras were shaking on the highlight reels. I can’t even imagine being in that stadium.”

For a few fleeting minutes, Sunday had a similar feeling for 32,054 fans who enjoyed the first open-air game of the season at Miller Park. They were jumping up and down like it was 1987 all over again after Thames came off the bench and smashed a pinch-hit home run off Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers’ closer who, until last week, had never allowed a run against the Brewers in his career.

“It’s crazy when you’re up there,” Thames said. “You’re quiet mentally. See a pitch and hit it. Especially pinch-hitting, it’s tough. But after that ball left the bat, you could feel the energy from the team and the fans and everything. That was an incredible feeling.”

The feeling didn’t last.

“For ‘E’ to put us back in the ballgame -- we were down pretty early -- and for him to put us back in the position we were, it’s huge,” said Hader. “It comes down to executing.”

Bellinger executed both in the field and at the plate. In the eighth, four batters before the Thames-Jansen battle, Bellinger leaped at the right-field wall to deny Christian Yelich of a home run that would have been Yelich’s 14th, which would have tied Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez for the most homers in history before May 1.

It was the second time in two weeks that Yelich was robbed of a home run. Mike Trout took one away during the Brewers’ three-game visit to Anaheim.

“There’s not much ‘Belly’ can’t do,” said Joc Pederson, who homered twice and collected four hits for the Dodgers on his birthday. “He’s pretty special.”

“It made a difference,” said Lorenzo Cain, who made a highlight reel catch of his own Sunday. “Bellinger and Yelich have been playing outstanding baseball. Both sides of the ball. That’s nice to see -- two really good players.”

In the ninth, Bellinger delivered with the bat against Hader, who was coming off a loss two days earlier in which he allowed Enrique Hernandez’s go-ahead, three-run home run on an 0-2 count. Bellinger found himself down in the count, 1-2, when he lashed a down-the-middle slider for the third home run off Hader in three outings.

It’s the first time in his career that Hader has allowed home runs in three straight appearances.

“If you look at all the pitches, I’m leaving them right down the middle,” said Hader. “The slider just spun.”

Said Bellinger: “Against him, you literally just want to put it in play and see what you can do. He just threw that one worse than the first two, and better for me, and I just tried to put the barrel to it.”

Hader was not the only Brewers pitcher lamenting a mistake. Brandon Woodruff put the Brewers in a 4-0 hole in the second inning on the way to allowing five earned runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings to push his ERA to 5.81 through five starts.

The Brewers didn’t have a hit against Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw until a fifth inning highlighted by Cain’s two-run home run. That began a comeback completed by Thames three innings later.

It wasn’t quite enough.

“In the end, their best player got our best pitcher,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell, “and that’s the game.”

The Brewers dropped four of seven games to the Cardinals and Dodgers for their first losing homestand since losing three of five to the Pirates and Indians during the first week of last May.

“We can’t just sit on this and act like the season’s over,” Hader said. “We’ve got a long season ahead of us. Just focus on the little things and get back to the baseball we know how to play.”