The Brewers plated six in the fifth off of Justin Nicolino and Brian Ellington, and three more off of Erik Cordier in the sixth to stack up a big lead against the Marlins. The offense, meanwhile, couldn't figure out young Zach Davies and his diabolical change-up.
Top of the 1st with Jonathan Lucroy on third base and two outs, Khris Davis smashed a 3-2 offering from Justin Nicolino that Martin Prado was able to smother and then toss over to first for a fine looking play to end the inning.
In the Marlins half Dee Gordon started things off with the kind of hits that drive opposing team's fans mad, a bloop off the end of the bat just beyond Elián Herrera at second, but there was nothing doing for it as Christian Yelich followed with a double play.
Second inning, Nicolino got Adam Lind swinging on a cutter in for his first K of the game, but then Domingo Santana reached on a deep grounder to third then Hernán Pérez singled past Donovan Solano to put runners on 1st and 2nd with an out. Herrera then popped out to Prado and got the pitcher Zach Davies to fly out to Marcell Ozuna to end the threat.
The top of the fourth saw the Brewers get on the board first, a no doubt homerun to right field off the bat of Khris Davis, who's been hitting a lot out of them out lately, 1-0 Brewers. Adam Lind then singled past Solano and Santana walked, but Nicolino worked out of the jam against the bottom of the order.
In the fifth Jean Segura tripled in the right center gap to lead things off for the Brewers then Lucroy did his thing and doubled up the middle to plate his teammate, 2-0 Brew Crew. Ryan Braun moved Lucroy to 3rd base with the first out. Davis then smashed one that was too hot to handle for Prado and Lucroy scored. Lind smacked one to center over Yelich's head that bounced off the wall and scored Davis from 1st base, 4-0 Brewers and that was all she wrote for Justin Nicolino. The southpaw's final line was four and a third's innings pitched, six runs on nine hits, one walk and one strikeout. Brian Ellington came in on relief for Nicolino and supplied the last two runs to Nicolino's line, though to be fair it was a poor route by Derek Dietrich in left that allowed Perez's ball to drop and Lind and Santana to score. 6-0 Brewers at the end of it.
Bottom of the fifth, Justin Bour shoots one into left against the shift to start things off for the Marlins. Ozuna followed with a solid single into right to put runners at first and second with nobody out. Dietrich popped out to the catcher for out number one, but then JT Realmuto hit one to almost the exact same spot Ozuna did and the bases were loaded. Solano was up next and hit one in the infield, Bour scoring on the fielder's choice to make it 6-1 Brew Crew. Pinch-hitting Casey McGehee tapped out weakly to Davies to put an end to any potential rally.
Erik Cordier gave up three more runs in the sixth and had to be bailed out by José Ureña, 9-1 Brewers.
In the seventh Dan Jennings was ejected by homeplate umpire Marvin Hudson for arguing balls and strikes. The ball in question was indeed questionable but umpires are pretty consistent about ejecting people questioning their calls from the dugout. Davies would be done at the end of the seventh, having given up but the one run on four hits, striking out four and walking none.
In the eighth, Cole Gillespie, freshly inserted into the game at center, made a phenomenal over the shoulder catch to rob Santana of extra bases. In doing so he crashed into the wall hard with the ball and glove wedged between the barrier and his chest, causing a pause in play as he caught his breath, but he was able to stay in the game thereafter.
After Ureña had pitched two and a third's innings, Raudel Lazo pitched a clean ninth for the Fish, striking out two. Tyler Thornburg wrapped up the win for the Brewers with two scoreless innings of his own.
Taylor Jungmann vs. Adam Conley tomorrow night for game two, 7:10 EST.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 16,804
Hero of the Game: Zach Davies (+.214)
Goat of the Game: Justin Nicolino (-.206)
Play of the Game: Khris Davis solo shot in the fourth (+.134)