Pat Murphy reached for Robert Gasser in the fourth inning Thursday night, pulling the starter two pitches into an at-bat against Randy Arozarena as the Milwaukee Brewers went on to beat the Seattle Mariners 7-4 at American Family Field. Gasser had already gotten 11 outs, but Murphy did not let the inning keep going.
The move mattered because Milwaukee was trying to protect a one-run game after the fourth inning turned messy fast. Gasser had walked Brendan Donovan, Taylor Ward and Cole Young, and he had allowed hits that kept Seattle close even after the Brewers scored six runs in the first. When Murphy went to the mound, Gasser was still trying to work through the inning, but the manager chose the shorter path to the finish.
Murphy did not hide the reason. He said he wanted to take Gasser out, adding that he was “kind of hot” and “a little too emotional right there.” The manager said Gasser had put 11 outs on the board but had also handed out five free bases, and that was enough to make the decision. “You want to win the game,” Murphy said. “You lose that game, it changes a lot.”
Gasser saw it from the other side. He said six runs in the first made a starter start “licking your chops,” but he also wanted to work deep enough to spare the bullpen. “It felt like a battle from the second on,” he said. He added that he wanted to go as long as he could and protect the bullpen, then acknowledged, “It’s unfortunate I wasn’t able to do that today.”
What happened after the hook told the rest of the story. Chad Patrick, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill finished the game, and Megill converted his 15th consecutive save and 23rd of the season. Garrett Mitchell added an eighth-inning home run for insurance, and Patrick earned the win to improve to 7-4. Milwaukee’s bullpen had now thrown 16 1/3 scoreless innings in the series, a run of work that helped cover for the early exit and, with Abner Uribe on the injured list with a forearm strain, made every clean frame count.
This was also the second time in less than three weeks that Murphy had removed one of his young starters during a game. On Aug. 3, he pulled Brandon Sproat in the middle of an eventual loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Sproat was later sent to Class AAA Nashville. Murphy did not say whether Gasser faces anything similar, and that is the question left hanging now: whether this was just a one-night move made to win a tight game, or the start of a longer look at how Milwaukee handles its young arms.
