Milwaukee Brewers starters have continuously failed them in the first inning

It's been an awful start to the season for the Milwaukee Brewers. The New York Yankees absolutely demolished them for three games, sending a demoralized team into Milwaukee for their home opener. With countless injuries to the starting rotation, Elvin Rodriguez was called upon to serve as an opener of sorts for their first game against the Kansas City Royals.

The season-opener was a narrow 4-2 defeat to the Yankees, a game that saw Freddy Peralta give up only four hits in five innings. Peralta truly established himself as the ace of the squad, especially in comparison to the other Brewers starters and how they performed in the next three outings. Peralta gave up a first pitch home run to Austin Wells, who became the first catcher with a leadoff home run in MLB history.

Nestor Cortes made all sorts of history with his nightmare performance in the second game of the year. New York took care of business, 20-9. One-fifth of their runs came in the first inning, three of which came on the first three pitches of the game. The Yankees chased Cortes after just two innings pitched. Cortes could not find the strike zone, and when he did his former team made him pay. Ultimately, he gave up eight earned runs on just six hits and five walks.

Regardless of how the second game went, the series finale wasn't much better. Aaron Civale was held to just three innings, giving up two first-inning runs. Similar to Cortes, Civale gave up more earned runs than he did hits. The Yankees series was a disaster for numerous reasons, but the Brewers were outscored 7-1 in the first inning alone.

Rodriguez never expected to find himself in a position to serve as the Brewers home opener. That's not to say he wasn't the man for the job, but sometimes that's just the way the game goes. The 27-year-old has big league experience, but has only thrown 3 1/3 innings with the Rays since 2023.

Monday's home opener certainly could have gone a lot worse, but Rodriguez ended up surrending three runs in the first inning. Once again the Brewers found themselves in a deficit, having now trailed 10-1 in the first inning throughout their first four games of the season. Rodriguez was able to settle in and pitch four complete innings, surpassing that of Cortes and Civale. His debut with the team was not perfect, but it's the trailing from behind early that has hurt this team. The offense cannot be tasked with digging out of that big of a hole every day.

Just five games into the season, it's way too early to jump to conclusions. This is a Brewers team that is plagued by injuries at the moment, something that has been mentioned time and time again. When Milwaukee is able to settle into the rotation that they had planned a couple of weeks ago, things will look much different. Then again, at this point in time, it's hard for the Crew to stay in games as they continuously find themselves in an early deficit, so they need to figure that out before things get out of hand.