[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers return to Centennial Stadium for a 10-game home stand starting with 3 against the last place Portland Wild Things.

Game 1 was an absolute heart-breaker. The Brewers and Wild Things fought to a 2-2 tie after 7 innings. Then Portland scored a go-ahead run in the 8th inning on a solo HR off Eric Singer. The Brewers bounced back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning thanks to a 2-run HR by Bobby Erbakan (.275/.345/.389), who went 2 for 4 in the game while driving in 3 runs. The HR was his 6th of the season. Singer stayed in the game to try to get the save in the 9th but after getting the first batter to ground out, he was victimized by an Antonio Puente error on what should have been the second out of the inning and then gave up a single and was pulled for stopper Jose de los Santos. He did not have a good outing. He got the first batter he faced but then gave up 2 singles and 2 walks as the Wild Things plated 3 runs. Kevin Curtis (.190/.326/.321) hit his 4th HR with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th but that was the most the Brewers could muster as they lost 6-5.

The Brewers got their first win of August in the middle game of the series with an extra inning win thanks largely to a great start by Cheol-han Lee, some wonderful bullpen work, and the bat of Pat Rondeau. Rondeau (.288/.308/.363) went 3 for 5 in the game but his biggest hit was a two-out game-winning triple in the bottom of the 12th inning, scoring Bobby Erbakan who had earned a two-out base on balls. Jordan Stephens, the last of 3 relievers to pitch in the game for Denver, got the win and improves to 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA. Cheol-han Lee did not get the decision but struck out 11 batters while walking just 1 and giving up 5 hits and 1 unearned run in 8 innings pitched. His ERA drops to 2.09.

The Brewers get the series win by taking game 3 by a score of 6-3. Kevin Curtis (.196/.328/.338) was named Player of the Game as he went 2 for 4 with 5 RBI and hit a big 3-run HR to give the Brewers a 4-0 lead in the 2nd inning. It was Curtis 2nd HR in his past 2 games played and his 5th of the season. Harry Lyerly got the start and the win, striking out 11 and walking just 1 but also giving up 3 runs on 6 hits in 7 2/3rds innings. Lyerly improves to 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA. Lyerly also went 2 for 3 at the plate. Jaden Francis gets his first save of the season and now has an ERA of 3.38.