The Brewers wrapped up a disappointing road trip with blowout loss to the Rockies

DENVER – There would be no heartbreak on this day.

Back to work quickly on the heels of their late-inning collapse, the Milwaukee Brewers wrapped up a profoundly disappointing seven-game road trip Wednesday with a rather perfunctory 8-4 defeat at the hands of the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Eric Lauer was tattooed for seven runs in the second and third innings combined before being removed with a left-elbow strain that will cost him his next start at least, and the offense was no match for yet another left-hander – this time Kyle Freeland, who scattered two hits and a run with eight strikeouts over six.

The loss left the Brewers 2-5 in their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Rockies – the two worst teams by record in the National League West – and 3½ games back in the chase for the third wild-card spot with both the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies playing Wednesday night.

"Wasn’t good enough," was manager Craig Counsell's succinct summary afterwards. "We were 2-5, and it wasn’t good enough."

Coors Field has been a house of horrors for Lauer, who entered the game 0-4 with a 14.63 earned run average in five prior career starts there.

BOX SCORE: Rockies 8, Brewers 4

And after a 1-2-3 first inning, the troubles returned.

A run-scoring double by Michael Toglia with one out got the Rockies out front, and a run-scoring single one batter later by Elias Díaz made it 2-0.

Lauer got to within an out of escaping with no further damage but left a curveball over the plate enough for No. 9 hitter Alan Trejo to turn on and deposit into the seats in left, doubling Colorado's lead to 4-0.

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In the midst of the blowup, Lauer was visited briefly on the mound by Counsell and head athletic trainer Scott Barringer, only to be left in after a brief discussion that was ultimately unrelated to his elbow.

But Counsell and Barringer hurried out to check on Lauer once again in the third immediately after Toglia sent a two-out, three-run homer out to left.

And after a more protracted chat Lauer (10-7) left with Barringer and was replaced by Tuesday's goat, Luis Perdomo, whose meltdown helped pave the way to a 10-7, 10-inning loss in which Milwaukee blew a five-run lead in the eighth.

"I was just kind of searching to feel my arm," said Lauer. "My arm was kind of tight, and I kind of lost control of where it was in space for those few pitches. I couldn’t really feel where my arm was, which was kind of alarming to me.

"It felt like Jell-O. The ball was coming out like Jell-O; I couldn’t pull down on anything, so I was leaving a lot of those pitches up.

"Just didn’t feel right."

Lauer will be examined by team physicians Thursday in Milwaukee.

"Injuries are rough this time of year," Counsell said. "We’ll see what’s going on with Eric and hope for the best. Even missing a start without many games left is significant."

The good news was Lauer indicated his belief is the injury is more related to fatigue.

"After doing all the testing and stuff it’s not super-concerning to me. It seems like there’s a lot of different muscle fatigue in there. From what I can tell, it just seems like muscle fatigue."

Perdomo was greeted by a ringing single – making it five consecutive hits against him – before striking out Elehuris Montero to end the inning.

Lauer's 2⅔ innings and 60 pitches were both season lows for him, while his total of seven runs (earned) was one away from tying his season high (June 11 at Washington).

He also walked one and struck out four.

Taking advantage of the embarrassment of offensive riches provided him, Freeland allowed only a Luis Urías single and a walk before Keston Hiura's leadoff triple in the fifth and Victor Caratini's subsequent groundout netted the Brewers their first run.

Freeland departed after the sixth and Milwaukee scored again in the eighth on an RBI double by Christian Yelich.

The final indignity occurred in the bottom of the eighth when Jace Peterson took the mound and retired the Rockies in order.

It was the seventh appearance by a Brewers position player on the mound this season.

Solo, ninth-inning homers by Andrew McCutchen and Urías capped the scoring.

Counsell was asked in the wake of the loss how he and the Brewers can turn things around over the season's final 26 games.

"Good baseball’s going to turn it around, and that’s going to take contributions from everybody," he said. "All of us have to do a little better. That’s how we’re going to get on a roll and how we’re going to string wins together. And it’s about stringing wins together.

"We’re still very much in this thing. When you have a trip like this, it doesn’t feel good at this time of the year when you know you’re in it, you know you have a chance. But we’re going to leave today, we’re going to wake up tomorrow and we’re going to be right in the middle of this thing and know that we can play good baseball and make this a great stretch for us.

"That still has to be our mind set, and it still is."

The Brewers return home for a rare Thursday doubleheader against the San Francisco Giants, a matchup made necessary due to the lockout that caused postponement of the start of the regular season.

It will be the first doubleheader not related to the 2020 COVID pandemic in Milwaukee since Sept. 23, 2000, when the Brewers hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at County Stadium.

Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta are scheduled to start Games 1 and 2, respectively.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' Eric Lauer leaves with elbow tightness during loss to Rockies