Feltner earns 1st win since April, with a huge assist from Doyle in center

MILWAUKEE – Ryan Feltner has had several effective outings over the past two months, only to be haunted by a frustrating lack of run support that still left him searching for his first win since April.

It looked as though it would be much of the same for the Rockies right-hander again on Friday as he held the Brewers to one run and two hits through five innings but found his team trailing by a run, but the Colorado offense came through with enough in one frame to set the Rockies on their way to a 3-2 win at American Family Field.

Milwaukee starter Frankie Montas held the Rockies without a hit until Ezequiel Tovar doubled with one out in the sixth. Ryan McMahon followed with a walk and with two outs Michael Toglia crushed a home run -- his 23rd of the season -- to straightaway center. Suddenly, Colorado held a 3-1 lead as Feltner returned to the mound.

He responded by striking out the side before departing with one of his better efforts of the season under his belt, giving up just two hits and one run in six innings. He struck out six and walked three in the 95-pitch outing.

“That homer from Toglia gave me a little boost of energy. It gave everybody a little boost of energy,” Feltner said. “That was a big swing and obviously the big momentum change in the game. It gave me a little second wind to finish strong.”

Feltner entered with an 0-4 record over his previous 10 starts despite a 3.68 ERA (51.1 IP, 21 ER) across that span while receiving only 16 total runs of support, a 2.81 run support average that had been the third-lowest in the Majors (min. 50 innings) dating to June 26.

“It’s something I can’t control,” Feltner said. “I just try to do my job.”

Feltner had gone 0-9 with a 5.35 ERA over his previous 22 starts since logging his only win of the season on April 12 at Toronto. His 22 starts without a win is the longest single-season winless streak by a starting pitcher (non-opener) since Braves pitcher Shelby Miller had a 24-start streak in 2015.

“It’s no fun as a starting pitcher when you look at your record. It can be very, very tough. It can be demoralizing,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “The coaches have done a great job continuing to encourage him. The wins are going to come in a big way if he pitches like he did tonight.

“He’s done a good job of keeping his chin up, his chest out and walking around as if he’s a successful Major League pitcher. That’s hard to do sometimes when you see the win/loss record. But we know how good he can be and that’s what’s kept him going. His teammates have been great with him, too, and that also helps.”

The Brewers scratched an unearned run back in the seventh to cut the Rockies lead to 3-2 and the win for Feltner didn’t become a sure thing until center fielder Brenton Doyle snagged a fly ball off the bat of Rhys Hoskins and then made a dead-strike throw to cut down speedy pinch-runner Brewer Hicklen at third to end the game.

Third-base umpire Edwin Moscoso called Hicklen out on the tag by McMahon. The Brewers challenged the call, which was upheld after a lengthy review.

“In those spots you are always anticipating the ball being hit to you,” Doyle said. “I was ready for it. It was a close one between [Jordan] Beck or I to catch it and try to throw him out. I just took authority and wanted to do it myself and I called him off, caught the ball and threw a good ball to Mac.”

Hicklen came on to pinch-run for Jake Bauers, who drew a one-out walk off Tyler Kinley – who earned his 10th save -- and then stole second for his first career steal. He said he thought at first that right-fielder Beck was going to make the catch on Hoskins’ fly ball.

“[Doyle] ended up calling him off but still kind of caught it with some flat feet,” Hicklen said. “Looking back, obviously, you’d like to not make that mistake. But I always play aggressive.”

Feltner said he wasn’t surprised by Doyle’s throw.

“I’ve played with Brenton since High-A. I’ve seen him do crazy stuff like that all the time,” he said. “It’s just another Doyle moment.”