Chris Young secured a grand slam and Josh Donaldson homered among his four hits as the Oakland Athletics supported Bartolo Colon with a major offensive performance in a 9-7 victory over Milwaukee on Monday.
Kyle Lohse will be getting along with Milwaukee’s pitching staff at exactly when it is needed the most. It is apparent that the Brewers can consider the assistance.
Brewers starter Chris Narveson served up Young’s slam in the fourth. The left-hander conceded six runs on eight hits in 3 2-3 innings.
It was five days after offering only one hit in six scoreless innings against San Francisco, Narveson walked five and fell to 1-2 with a 5.50 ERA this spring.
Commenting on what the difference was between Monday’s outing and Narveson’s earlier start, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said: “Command of the ball. He walked five people and you can’t do that.”
“His stuff was OK, but he wasn’t consistent with it. He had trouble getting in rhythm. He would pitch well to one batter and not so well to the next two,” he included.
Roenicke was actually hoping forward to including Lohse to an abnormal rotation. The free-agent right-hander finalized a $33 million, three-year contract with Milwaukee on Monday after going 16-3 with a 2.86 ERA for NL Central rival St. Louis last season.
The move resulted precisely a week before the Brewers started the season at home against Colorado. Lohse will be seen pitching Thursday against the Rockies in a Cactus League game, though his regular-season debut for Milwaukee could be altered until mid-April as he gets his arm in shape.
“We are better with Lohse,” Roenicke said. “I like our other starters very much, but Lohse is a special guy.”
Scott Sizemore had four hits and two RBIs for the A’s. Colon ended up with three runs and six hits over five innings in his third start and fifth outing for the spring. He struck out three and walked none.
Colon will be reserved to the bench during the first five games of the season while finishing his 50-game suspension for a positive drug test last year.
“He threw all of his pitches and actually worked on off-speed stuff,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “There was a checked swing that one inning where he gave up a couple of runs (three). But I thought he threw the ball well.”
Milwaukee’s backups resulted in three runs off right-hander Dan Straily in the eighth inning and one more in the ninth before lefty Pedro Figueroa closed the door to earn the save.
Melvin feels the way that Young, obtained during the offseason in a trade with Arizona, is making the changes to playing the corner outfield spots after playing center field for the Diamondbacks.
“I haven’t seen him have a problem with the corners, even though the spin of the ball is different,” Melvin said. “He’s just a good outfielder.”
After the A’s, Young is known to have to be complementing Yoenis Cespedes in left field, Coco Crisp in center and Josh Reddick in right.
