DENVER -- The little things are just as likely to bite a team at Coors Field as the towering home runs. In the Brewers’ 9-6 loss to the Rockies on Thursday, completing Colorado’s three-game sweep and extending Milwaukee’s first prolonged funk this season, there were a few of each.

The Brewers have dropped three of their last four series after winning five of the first six. It’s the sort of swing that will happen over 162 games, but that doesn’t make it any easier, especially after a 4-0 Milwaukee lead in the seventh inning turned into a 9-4 deficit in the eighth, and everything that could go wrong for the Brewers, did.

“It happened fast,” said Brewers starter Wade Miley, who was cruising along until he wasn’t. “That was a big game for us. We really needed to try to pull that one out.”

Christian Yelich led off the game with a home run and Rowdy Tellez added another solo shot three batters later, giving Miley a 2-0 lead before he stepped on the mound. When Tyrone Taylor homered in the fifth for his first hit of 2023 and Victor Caratini singled for an insurance run in the sixth, the Brewers and Miley were sailing along comfortably.

Then, in the seventh, came the sort of weird inning that always seems to find its way into a series at spacious Coors Field:

1: Mike Moustakas, the former Brewer whose fingerprints were all over this Colorado comeback, started it when he capped an eight-pitch at-bat with a single off Miley, who’d breezed through six scoreless innings on 79 pitches, 50 strikes.

2: Alan Trejo bunted for a single.

“It was a great time to bunt,” Miley said. “Nobody was really expecting it there, down four. It kind of opened up their inning for them.”

3: Ezequiel Tovar, who was Colorado’s top prospect until he graduated earlier this week, pulled a two-run double to the left-field corner to abruptly chase Miley from the game. Third baseman Brian Anderson was stationed off the line and Miley tried to bust Tovar inside like he’d done in previous at-bats. The pitch didn’t get in enough, and Tovar kept it fair.

“We couldn't get a handle on him,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “And then a base hit and a bunt, it sort of changed the complexion of the game a little bit.”

4: With reliever Joel Payamps in, Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle, another Top 30 prospect getting a look, hit an infield single to the hole at second base, where Brewers rookie Brice Turang made a slick stop but couldn’t throw out the speedy Doyle. It wouldn’t be the last time that Doyle’s speed came into play.

5: Red-hot Rockies catcher Elias Díaz pinch-hit and Doyle stole second base. Then Payamps, amid a busy sequence in which Díaz hurt his hand on a check swing, was called for a costly balk by home-plate umpire D.J. Reyburn, forcing home a run and pushing Doyle to third. On the previous pitch, Reyburn had warned Payamps about a new rule this year: A pitcher cannot come set until the hitter’s eyes are engaged.

“I don’t think the umpire did anything wrong there,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “It just threw Joel’s timing off a little bit. He had a small flinch and unfortunately that’s a balk. I guess what that flinch does for the game, it starts to make you shake your head like, ‘What’s the big deal?’ But that’s the rule.”

6: Díaz lifted a tying sacrifice fly to right field, where strong-armed Tyrone Taylor had a chance to throw out a runner at home plate for the third straight game. But the speedy Doyle wasn’t the right runner for the scenario, and he scored for a 4-4 tie.

It got worse for the Brewers and reliever Peter Strzelecki in the eighth, when Moustakas made a terrific defensive play to end the top of the inning before doubling to set-up Harold Castro’s go-ahead single -- punched to the right spot through an opening on the left side of the infield.

The Rockies kept rolling, stringing together a five-run inning to put away the game and the series sweep.

“This place, I haven’t pitched well here, but I’ve got to make adjustments and be better,” said Strzelecki, who was charged with all five runs while getting one out. “There’s no excuse for that. I let my team down twice -- or three times, going back to last year. … I’ll learn from this and do what I can to be better next time.”

First, the Brewers have to find a way to win a series. They have lost eight of their last 12 games, the last three in a row to a Rockies team that began the week with a 9-20 record.

“Let's get out of Denver,” Miley said. “We came in and got our butts whipped. Time to move on from it and get back to work.”