The Milwaukee Brewers made it to their 23rd game before putting their first losing streak in the books.
One bad inning by Colin Rea and a quiet game by the offense resulted in a 4-2 defeat to the Detroit Tigers at American Family Field on Monday night.
Milwaukee had entered the game as the lone team in the major leagues to not have lost consecutive games.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 4, Brewers 2
Now, the Brewers have dropped three of the first four on their current nine-game homestand – a disappointing development after having arrived back in town winners of seven of 10 on their West Coast road swing.
The loss, their second straight, comes on the heels of Sunday’s 12-5 blowout to the Boston Red Sox.
Aside from two-out, solo homers in the first and third by William Contreras and Mike Brosseau, respectively, the Brewers didn’t do much in five innings against Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd.
The homer was the first of the season for Contreras, leaving Jesse Winker and Luke Voit as the lone Milwaukee sluggers still hunting theirs.
Brosseau’s blast pulled them to within 3-2, then they had a chance to take their first lead in the fourth when Brian Anderson and Voit singled to start and Owen Miller reached on a swinging bunt with one out.
But the budding rally fizzled quickly when Joey Wiemer popped out to shallow center and Blake Perkins struck out.
Detroit’s bullpen took over in the sixth, and Milwaukee’s offense managed a lone baserunner on a hit by pitch the rest of the way.
“I thought he did a really nice job with his curveball,” said manager Craig Counsell. “He just threw a ton of curveball strikes when he hadn’t done that in any of his other previous starts. I mean, he landed every curveball, and that’s a great way to get ahead.”
Rea, making his third start for Milwaukee, had trouble dialing in his command in the early going as he issued four walks over the first three innings.
Three came in succession in the third but the first walk was erased on a caught stealing. The Tigers would have had loaded the bases when Javier Báez singled to right, but the defense was able to record a second out on the play thanks to a Detroit baserunning gaffe.
Rea followed by surrendering a three-run homer to right by cleanup batter Nick Maton.
The Tigers tacked on their fourth and final run in the fifth as Eric Haase was left with a leadoff double when Blake Perkins made an ill-advised attempt at a diving catch in left, then scrambled home to score two batters later when Owen Miller’s throw home on a ground ball was high and late.
Rea (0-1) completed five innings on 79 pitches and was replaced by Bryse Wilson.
Alex Claudio and Jake Cousins, both of whom joined the Brewers earlier in the day from Class AAA Nashville, each saw action behind Wilson.
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