Big bat backs Bryse … but Brewers super fan steals show?

KANSAS CITY -- Bryse Wilson provided a nearly-spotless start for a rotation in need, and Gary Sánchez flashed the power the Brewers want him to produce against left-handed pitching.

All that was missing was the clean finish.

The Brewers’ reliable bullpen yielded three runs in the seventh inning in relief of Wilson, and that was enough to flip the outcome in a 3-2 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Monday.

Here are three takeaways from the Brewers’ third straight loss:

1. A rare late letdown
The Brewers entered the night 15-1 when leading after six innings, 16-0 when leading after seven and 19-0 when leading after eight, so the Royals dealt a rare blow to a good bullpen.

But the Royals did rally, doing so at the expense of Jared Koenig and Elvis Peguero -- the former pitching in a high-leverage spot because another lefty, Bryan Hudson, was not available Monday according to manager Pat Murphy, and the latter one of Milwaukee’s best and hardest-worked bullpen arms during the first five weeks of the regular season.

It erased the good work of Wilson, who worked around three walks and a hit batsman to pitch six scoreless innings thanks to six strikeouts and only one hit allowed, and a two-run homer from Sánchez in the fourth inning off Royals lefty starter Cole Ragans.

Koenig inherited a 2-0 lead and immediately saw it halved when Royals second baseman Michael Massey led off the seventh with a two-strike home run. A one-out hit batsman followed by a walk (after an 0-2 count) prompted a call for Peguero, who induced a Dairon Blanco bouncer to Willy Adames’ left at shortstop. It’s difficult to imagine the Brewers turning a double play given Blanco’s speed, but Adames was unable to get any outs. Initially, the play was ruled an error, but later changed to an infield hit.

Either way, the result was that Maikel Garcia’s subsequent base hit plated two runs and flipped a 2-1 Brewers lead to a 3-2 deficit.

2. Wilson delivered again
In four starts since injuries forced the Brewers to move Wilson from the bullpen to the rotation, the 26-year-old has a 1.35 ERA (three earned runs in 20 innings). He’s worked six innings in each of his last two starts and surrendered one total run.

Against the Royals, Wilson settled in after walking one batter and hitting another in the first inning. He threw nine pitches apiece in the third and fourth while going six-up, six-down in those innings, and might have had a chance to pitch the seventh had the Royals not worked him for 23 pitches in the sixth -- 10 during a long battle with Vinnie Pasquantino that produced a double play to help Wilson reclaim control after he walked the first two men in the inning.

“Kind of like my role I had last year in the bullpen, I take a lot of pride in saving some of those arms and giving days off, and I’m taking that into a starting [role] as well,” Wilson said. “If I can go six [innings] every time out -- it’s probably not going to happen because that’s how baseball is -- but if I can go six then I know the bullpen is good to go, and 99 times out of 100, we’re going to get that win after that game.”

3. The swing of the game produced the play of the game
Sánchez hadn’t started a game since tweaking his hamstring six days earlier but returned to the lineup with a two-run home run off Ragans in the fourth. It sailed a Statcast-projected 427 feet toward left-center field, where Jake Starck of East Troy, Wis., clad in a Brewers/Admirals hockey sweater -- a crossover promotion for Milwaukee’s Minor League hockey team and Major League baseball team -- made a sweet snag to keep the baseball from sailing into one of the stadium’s waterfalls.

His celebration made him a star of the Brewers’ television broadcast, but if you looked closely you might have recognized him. This was Starck’s 24th such catch in a Major League game. The first was a Rickie Weeks home run back in 2011. Now Weeks is Milwaukee’s associate manager.

“I caught that first one and was like, ‘I want to do this,’” Starck said. “It became a passion. I’ve made tons of friends all over the country doing it.”

Starck attends 40-50 Brewers home games and always positions himself in the outfield, always with his glove. He’s friendly with some of the other notable Milwaukee ballhawks, who vie for position when they start hearing loud sounds off the bat.

On Monday, his celebration was as notable as his catch.

“When you catch it on the fly,” Starck said, “you’ve got to react and do something fun with it.”