MILWAUKEE _ It's not often that a baseball game is over after the first six batters.
But that wound up being the case Wednesday night for the Milwaukee Brewers. Three errors in Arizona's first three at-bats set the tone, and Yasmany Tomas' three-run home run later in the inning sealed the deal as the Brewers went on to lose to the Diamondbacks, 8-1, in what easily qualified as their sloppiest game of the season.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis committed two more errors in the second inning, leaving Milwaukee one shy of tying the franchise record just 12 batters into the game.
Then in the third came the apparent benching of shortstop Jonathan Villar. He was responsible for two of the three first-inning errors and then in the bottom of the inning was thrown out trying to steal third with two outs with the Brewers trailing, 6-0, and cleanup hitter Jonathan Lucroy at the plate.
A bobble by Villar allowed Phil Gosselin to reach with one out in the first, then Villar fired the ball into right field on an infield single by Jean Segura in an attempt to get Gosselin at second. Nieuwenhuis misplayed the overthrow for the Brewers' third error, allowing Gosselin to score.
Jimmy Nelson then walked Paul Goldschmidt and surrendered an RBI single to Welington Castillo before Tomas provided the big blow with his homer to left-center that made it 5-0.
Villar led off the Brewers' first with a double and Scooter Gennett followed with a walk to put two on for Ryan Braun, who lined into a 9-3 double play. Not long thereafter Villar was gunned down easily at third by Castillo for the third out, capping one of the team's ugliest innings in recent memory.
Arizona tacked on another run in the second when starter Archie Bradley singled to lead off, reached second on a Nieuwenhuis error and scored with two outs on another Nieuwenhuis miscue when he overran a Segura single.
The three errors by Nieuwenhuis were two fewer than the five he'd committed in 276 previous major-league games.
After Milwaukee went down in order in the second, manager Craig Counsell pulled Villar from the game, sliding Hernan Perez over from third to shortstop and inserting Jake Elmore at third. TV cameras later showed Counsell and Villar engaged in an animated discussion in the dugout, with both frequently gesturing.
There was no report from the Brewers of Villar being injured, and considering Villar's multiple baserunning mistakes to this point in the season the assumption was the move was a benching.
Nelson (6-9) struck out the side in the second and the third, but Tomas hit a two-run homer in the fifth to stretch the Diamondbacks' lead to 8-0. Nelson's night ended one batter later with him having allowed nine hits, eight runs (six earned) and two walks to go along with seven strikeouts.
The Brewers broke up the shutout in the seventh, with Lucroy doubling and eventually scoring on a pair of fly balls.
They did avoid tying the franchise record for errors after not committing another after the second inning. Milwaukee committed six errors in a game twice, most recently on June 6, 1990 against the California Angels.
