WASHINGTON _ A team badly in need of something good happening was rescued Monday by Junior Guerra.
Continuing a string of excellent pitching with 7 1/3 shutout innings, Guerra pitched the Milwaukee Brewers to a 1-0 victory in a holiday special against Washington at Nationals Park.
In a game that started at 11 a.m. local time to allow customers time to get to the city's annual concert and fireworks display later, Guerra never gave Washington's hitters a wake-up call. He allowed only two hits and a pair of walks during his outing, extending his string to 15 1/3 scoreless innings over two starts.
The Brewers were in need of a victory after being swept in a rainy three-game series in St. Louis and arriving here late Sunday night. They had a quick turnaround to play the series opener against the Nationals and Guerra delivered in a big way.
Guerra's outing was remarkably similar to his previous start against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Miller Park. He went eight innings in that game, also allowing two hits with no runs, two walks and seven strikeouts.
The game got off to an embarrassing start for the Brewers when they batted out of turn in the first inning. With two down, Ryan Braun singled to center off Max Scherzer, prompting Washington manager Dusty Baker to pop out of the dugout with his lineup card.
Baker showed the umpires that the official lineup card turned in by the Brewers had Braun batting fourth and Jonathan Lucroy ahead of him in the third spot. So, the Brewers were ruled to have batted out of turn, negating Braun's hit.
Because Lucroy was in the No. 3 spot, he was ruled out (catcher unassisted). Braun batted again to open the second and grounded out to third.
The Brewers were the first major-league club to bat out of order since 2013, when Texas did so against Oakland after lineup changes were made during the game. The last team to bat out of order to start a game was San Francisco against Los Angeles that same season.
The Brewers had not batted out of order since the final game before the all-star break in 1996, when Matt Mieske mistakenly batted in place of Jose Valentin.
In a different circumstance in August 1988, manager Tom Trebelhorn listed Robin Yount's name twice in the same lineup, batting third in center field and fifth as designated hitter. Trebelhorn meant to put Mike Young as DH, and when Young batted, Detroit manager Sparky Anderson protested that he was hitting for Yount, who should have to leave the game.
The umpires agreed that Yount should leave the game, which led to Trebelhorn's ejection. The league office admitted the next day that Yount should have been allowed to stay in the game and that the Brewers merely should have lost the DH.
Imagine if Scherzer had thrown a no-hitter after that snafu? But Guerra got manager Craig Counsell and Co. off the hook with a one-out single up the middle in the third inning.
The game remained scoreless until the fifth, when Martin Maldonado got all of a 2-1 fastball from Scherzer and blasted it out to left for his third home run of the season.
The Brewers had another scoring chance against Scherzer in the sixth when Aaron Hill laced a two-out single off the wall in left and Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado drew walks to load the bases. On his 114th and last pitch of the game, Scherzer escaped by getting Ramon Flores to fly out to right.
Scherzer allowed four hits during his six-inning stint with three walks and seven strikeouts. Only Maldonado's blast marred his outing.
Washington had its first real scoring opportunity off Guerra in the sixth when Jayson Werth singled to left with two out and continued to second on Braun's first error of the season. The Brewers pitched around Bryce Harper, walking him intentionally, but a Guerra wild pitch put both runners in scoring position.
Guerra fixed that problem by striking out Wilson Ramos, who entered the game batting .343.
