Brewers 5, White Sox 2: Chase Anderson solid
A quiet spring came to an impressive end Friday night for Chase Anderson.
One day after it was announced he'd be filling in for Matt Garza and opening the season as the Milwaukee Brewers' No. 4 starter, the right-hander turned in a strong five-inning outing in a 5-2 exhibition victory over the Chicago White Sox at Miller Park.
Anderson allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out six in a 67-pitch performance, leaving him with a 2.79 earned-run average in six spring starts.
"I thought he did an excellent job," manager Craig Counsell said. "His fastball was very crisp, for sure. I thought he was beating hitters with his fastball tonight."
Anderson entered camp as one of seven candidates for five rotation spots, but was the last man standing after Garza landed on the disabled list to start the season with a right-groin strain and Tommy Milone was moved to the bullpen.
"I felt real good," Anderson said. "I felt like I was able to attack the zone. It was fun throwing to Jett (Bandy); he threw some good fingers down. We were on the same page the whole time. Defense made some good plays.
"It just felt good to be back out there and get up five times. Hopefully I can carry that into the season. It was a good tuneup."
Anderson was 9-11 with a 4.39 ERA in 31 games (30 starts) in 2016 for the Brewers, who acquired him from the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of the Jean Segura trade on Jan. 30, 2016. The nine wins tied a career high and his 120 strikeouts set a career high.
Although he served as the team's No. 5 starter for much of the year, Anderson saved his best work for the home stretch as he finished 5-1 with a 2.56 ERA over his final 12 outings.
Four Milwaukee relievers followed Anderson on Friday, with Tyler Cravy, Rob Scahill and Jacob Barnes allowing just one hit over three shutout innings.
One of those clean frames belonged to Barnes. The right-hander struggled through the second half of the Cactus League season, but manager Craig Counsell confirmed earlier Friday he'd made the Brewers' opening-day roster in the bullpen for now.
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"With guys with options, crazy things can happen," Counsell said. "I don't expect them to."
With rosters needing to be set by 11 a.m. Sunday, Milwaukee is down to three relievers for two spots in Cravy, Scahill and Taylor Jungmann.
Friday also provided a sneak peek at what could be a normal lineup for the Brewers.
It featured Jonathan Villar hitting leadoff and the team's two left-handed-hitting acquisitions in the off-season – Eric Thames and Travis Shaw – sandwiched around Ryan Braun to help balance what was a heavily right-handed lineup in 2016.
Counsell said that alignment could be seen routinely in the early going, and Shaw looked quite comfortable batting cleanup as he contributed an RBI single and homer.
"He swung the bat well," Counsell said. "For the new guys in the park, just getting off to a good start. Eric hit two balls really hard tonight, too. Good start for guys in their first home game, so to speak."
While Counsell is normally loathe to lock anything in with regard to a lineup, he did say that Villar hitting first and Braun hitting third would be the norm.
"Look, we have a lot of new players. We have a lot of players with less than 1,000 big-league plate appearances," he said. "I think we have to be a little flexible. I want to be flexible on how I approach this.
"I know we get fixated on lineups, but whoever hits second, whoever hits third, hopefully they're both going up there five times a night. It's really more important that they're in there getting five at-bats."
One projected starter, rightfielder Domingo Santana, was replaced by Hernán Pérez, who batted fifth and helped the Brewers to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI groundout.
Villar got Milwaukee on the board first by drawing a leadoff walk from White Sox pitcher Gregory Infante, stealing second, advancing to third on an errant pickoff throw and scoring on Shaw's single.
Shaw's homer came in the seventh. It was his fifth of the spring and second in as many games.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 5, White Sox 2
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The Brewers added their final two runs in the eighth, when Thames drove in Jesús Aguilar with a double to left-center and then scored himself on a wild pitch two batters later.
Carlos Torres pitched a shaky ninth, allowing two hits, two runs and a walk.
Friday's game also gave fans their first opportunity to use the revamped concessions stands at Miller Park. A crowd of 15,313 was on hand, and with everyone in attendance receiving free $10 food and drink vouchers, wait times for service were longer than expected.
The Brewers acknowledged the issue during the game.
"Tonight was the first night of our new concessions operations, and we know that the wait time at most stands was very long," said the team's vice president of communications, Tyler Barnes.
"The primary reason for this is that our day of game and last-minute sales accounted for more than half of our total tickets sold for this game, which is unprecedented. We will be better staffed tomorrow and offer a better concessions experience for everyone in attendance."
