GLENDALE, Ariz. — It’s the mature, unabashed cacophony of the cactus cuckoo. It’s the kind of game where you just pray someone’s mom calls it “dinner time!” and mercifully ends the whole thing. It’s the kind of game where the score is so high on the scoreboard that the manager starts plotting a run-pass attack in the eighth inning.
The kind of game that sums up Sun Valley spring training in mid-March.
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“Only in the Cactus League,” Pat Murphy said after the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 24-9 on May 16 in Glendale at Camelback Ranch.
The Camelback Ranch scoreboard shows the final score of the March 16 spring training game between the Brewers and Dodgers.
A total of 466 pitches were thrown, 207 of which were live. Of those 466 players, 250 came from Dodgers pitchers; only once in the pitch-tracking era since 2008 has a team pitched more than that number in a single nine-inning game. In that game on July 16, 2021, the Washington Nationals threw 258 pitches to the plate, most of which were unlucky pitches, and coincidentally, they lost 24-8.
As the Dodgers were on the merry-go-round late in the game, Murphy was talking about his RPO offensive machinations within the ears of coaches Jace Peterson and Daniel Vogelbach. Peterson, a former cornerback at McNeese State, would be a viable quarterback or running back in Murphy’s scheme; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what role Vogelbach will play.
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“I was distracted,” Murphy said.
Maybe the same goes for pitchers.
Before the afternoon turned into a live-action role-play of the Baseball Bug episode of “Looney Tunes,” it looked like another spring loser for the Brewers, who had their fair share of losers in pointless efforts.
On a day that nearly included an error in a perfect game against the Giants, the Brewers fell behind 7-0 as Opening Day rotation member Chad Patrick hit a two-run home run.
Then, the procession began. The Dodgers’ pitchers no longer look for the zone, their outfielders no longer wear gloves, and the Brewers’ bats are getting hot under the Arizona sun.
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First, it was a 10-point Game 5 that lasted 32 minutes. Then came the ninth-point seventh, which lasted 29 minutes. Brandon Lockridge hits a grand slam. There is a triple sacrifice fly. Eleven Brewers pitched in the final five innings. Three of them came in a row and the base was filled. pinch runner In the same inning in which he was a runner on base, he came back to bat and hit a home run. Nearly four hours passed.
Lockridge went 3-for-5, while Jeter Williams and Luis Rengifo also had multi-hit days.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy talks to his team during the third inning of a Cactus League game against the Dodgers on March 16.
Rookie Brady Ebel transitioned from pinch runner to batter in the seventh inning and hit a home run against a team where his father, Dino, was the third base coach. Ebell, the 32nd overall pick in last summer’s draft by the Brewers, spent his formative years at Dodger Stadium taking ground balls and batting practice with his father. This is Brady’s second game this spring against his father’s team, although Dino, who served as Team USA’s third base coach in the World Baseball Classic, was not in the opposing dugout during both games.
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Sixty pitches were thrown in the first half of the fifth inning. That was the most runs scored in a single inning in the Cactus League this spring…until two innings later, when Dodgers pitchers Jack Drell, Kelvin Ramirez and Evan Shaw combined for 62 runs.
Yet somehow it got worse.
For those with dinner plans, the real trouble came in the first half of Game 9. Lucas Wepf, a Class AA reliever, started the inning on the mound and walked, single, single, walk, walk. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts showed him leniency by taking the ball out of his hands and handing it to 12th-rounder Robby Porco from a year ago, who had yet to make his pro debut and inherited another bases-loaded mess.
Porco walked the first batter he faced. on four pitches.
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The real hero of the day wasn’t Lockridge or Ebell, or any of the hitters who put up 24 runs at the plate, but minor league free agent signing Joe Corbett, whose heroics included a three-up, three-out game in the ninth inning that led to a GOAT rodeo that lasted three hours and 54 minutes.
At least it’s late now and mom will have dinner ready after all when all the customers have gone home.
Outlook Observation
Since it was a full-on circus, almost every last member of the travel list was in attendance. Eberle, Luke Adams, Cooper Platt, Mike Boeve and Braylon Payne are all notable candidates entering the race.
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Brewers spring training schedule
Closed on Tuesday.
Brewers (division) vs. Angels, Wednesday, 3:10 p.m.: Milwaukee LHP Aaron Ashby vs. Los Angeles TBA. Broadcast – 620 WTMJ.
Brewers (division) vs. Mariners, Wednesday, 3:10 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Chad Patrick vs. Seattle RHP Emerson Hancock. Broadcast – Brewers.TV
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Brewers beat Los Angeles Dodgers 24-9 in Cactus League play
