Was that one bad week or something deeper for Milwaukee Brewers?
The Brewers lost five straight games for the first time in 2.5 years; will the problems that ail them persist? We discuss on the Microbrew podcast.
Trevor Megill suffered another disastrous ninth inning and Grant Anderson allowed three more runs in a game-deciding 10th as the Milwaukee Brewers lost, 9-7, to the Toronto Blue Jays to push their losing streak to six games.
Milwaukee led by a run entering the ninth and handed the ball to their scuffling closer, who did nothing to assuage concerns about his – or the team’s – April slide.
In his first outing since allowing four runs while not recording an out over just nine pitches, Megill gave up three runs as the Blue Jays were able to put together one comfortable swing against him after another. It was the third time in his three outings at home that Megill has entered with a tie or lead and flipped the scoreboard.
BOX SCORE: Blue Jays 9, Brewers 7 (10 innings)
A rally by the offense in the bottom of the ninth would prove moot, as Anderson gave up a pair of doubles that plated three runs, continuing the unpleasant bullpen performance of the homestand in which it has allowed 19 runs over four games.
Lockridge sends it to extra
We are headed to extras as the Brewers erased a two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth on hits by Brice Turang and Brandon Lockridge.
The inning began with Sal Frelick walking and stealing second, which proved important when William Contreras grounded out for what would have been a double play. Turang singled home a run to cut the deficit to one, stole second and then scored when Lockridge smacked the seventh pitch of the at-bat to left for a game-tying double.
But Joey Ortiz had a chance to walk it off, fittingly with the bases loaded, and struck out on three pitches. He, again rather fittingly, chased a fastball high for the third strike. Ortiz went 5 for 30 in a franchise-record 30 at-bats with the bases full last year, and is just 1 for 4 with two strikeouts to begin 2026.
Trevor Megill blows another save
The immense struggles continued for Megill in a treacherous ninth.
The all-star closer from a year ago hasn’t regained his form to start 2026. His velocity is down. He is not getting swing and miss with the fastball. Opponents are as a result putting much better swings on the curveball. It hasn’t looked good.
This time, Eloy Jimenez led off the ninth by drawing a walk and moved to third on Davis Schneider’s ringing ground-rule double to center. Megill then allowed a 100.3 mph single to Kazuma Okamoto to tie it, then a soft tapper by Andres Giménez resulted in a RBI grounder to give the Jays a 5-4 lead.
Abner Uribe gives one up but works out of it
Abner Uribe hasn’t had the best of results of late, but pitched better in his setup role April 14 even if he ended up giving up a run.
A pair of bloop hits and a 50-50 challenge went against him as he allowed a run to get the Blue Jays within a run in the eighth. Lenyn Sosa led off with a soft single to center, then reached third on a broken-bat hit by Daulton Varsho. Garrett Mitchell made a strong throw to third that nearly got Sosa, but upon replay review the call on the field stood.
It could have been much worse from there for Uribe, who got the ever-dangerous Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to weakly ground out to short, which drove in a run. Jesús Sánchez then did the same, tapping one up the middle for the third out and stranding the potential tying run 90 feet away.
Gary Sánchez…again
For the second straight game, Sánchez joined Bauers in the homer column by going way deep to left in the seventh.
Sánchez got a hanging 0-1 curveball from left-handed reliever Braydon Fisher and sent it to the second-deck bleachers in left to extend Milwaukee’s lead to 4-2.
Sánchez is up to five homers, which ties him for eighth-most in all of baseball, in just 25 at-bats.
Luis Rengifo’s struggles continue, this time in a big spot
Milwaukee had Toronto on the ropes in the sixth, looking for some more offense to provide a bigger cushion for a struggling bullpen, but failed to come through after a couple of poor at-bats with runners in scoring position.
After Joey Ortiz sacrifice bunted the runners to second and third for the first out against lefty Mason Fluharty, Luis Rengifo struck out swinging by chasing four pitches out of the zone, then Sal Frelick went down on strikes by whiffing at a breaking ball well off the plate.
It was Rengifo’s 17th straight hitless at-bat, a streak that moved to 18 with a pop out with a runner in scoring position in the eighth.
Sixth inning speedbump strikes again
What happened to Jacob Misiorowski in the sixth was eerily similar to what happened to him last week in the same inning.
Cruising through five innings, the right-hander’s velocity was down to begin the sixth as he faced the lineup for a third time. And after retiring the leadoff batter, things quickly went downhill.
Daulton Varsho ripped a hanging first-pitch slider into the visiting bullpen in right to cut the deficit to 3-2, then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled to center.
With DL Hall warming in the bullpen, that brought Misiorowski’s evening to an end at 76 pitches and 56 strikes. Misiorowksi’s control was the best it’s been this season, but after seeing how it went last week in Boston when they stuck with the righty when his fastball was diminished, manager Pat Murphy made the call.
It worked out, too, with Hall retiring the next two hitters to escape the inning with the lead.
A missile off the bat of Jake Bauers
The Brewers still haven’t scored a run via anything but the home run in six days (not that homers are bad), but they’ll gladly take the three-run lead that came with Bauers’ loud thwack in the fourth.
After Brice Turang and Gary Sánchez reached to lead off the fourth against Gausman, Bauers put a charge into one, sending it 418 feet left of center for his fifth blast of the year. Bauers’ third homer in four games on the homestand left the bat at 107.1 mph, the latest loud swing of his impressive April. It raised his OPS to .891, a number backed by impressive peripheral measures such as a 55.6% hard-hit rate and improved whiff percentages.
Toronto got one back in the next half-inning when Andres Giménez turned on a fastball that missed by four inches inside and roped it to the second deck in right.
Blue Jays out of challenges by third inning
The most exciting part of the first three innings? Toronto running out of challenges.
A lost challenge by catcher Brandon Valenzuela in the first and then again in the third by Giménez on a called third strike wiped out the Blue Jays’ ABS challenge.
Both pitchers were in cruise mode through three, having put up nothing but zeroes while allowing one hit apiece.
What time is the Brewers game today?
Time: 6:40 p.m.
What channel is the Brewers game on today?
TV channel: Brewers.TV.
Brewers 2026 record
8-7.
Brewers lineupSal Frelick RFWilliam Contreras CBrice Turang 2BGary Sánchez DHJake Bauers 1BLuis Matos LFGarrett Mitchell CFJoey Ortiz SSDavid Hamilton 3BJacob Misiorowski, SPBlue Jays lineupErnie Clement 2BDaulton Varsho CFVladimir Guerrero Jr. 1BJesús Sánchez LFEloy Jiménez DHNathan Lukes RFKazuma Okamoto 3BAndres GiménezBrandon Valenzuela CKevin Gausman SPBrewers schedule
Brewers vs. Blue Jays, April 15, 6:40 p.m.: Milwaukee TBA vs. Toronto RHP Dylan Cease (0-0, 2.45). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers vs. Blue Jays, April 16, 12:40 p.m.: Milwaukee TBA vs. Toronto LHP Patrick Corbin (0-0, 9.00). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.