Brewers 5, Rangers 1: Tyler Black finishes a homer shy of the cycle

Game recap

Brewers 5, Rangers 1

The Tyler Black spring breakout tour continues.

He doubled in the first inning, singled in the third and tripled in a pair of runs in the fourth, continuing his torrid first week of Cactus League play at the plate in a 5-1 victory for Milwaukee at Surprise Stadium on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 26.

Black, who will be departing camp shortly to play for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic was given a shot at completing the cycle with a fourth at-bat but was called out on strikes, with his ensuing challenge denied.

In four games so far, Black has eight hits in 12 at-bats (.667 average) with two doubles, a triple, a home run and eight runs batted in. His OPS stands at 1.942 and he's also stolen a team-high three bases.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 5, Rangers 1

"It's great to see," said manager Pat Murphy. "Sorry we're going to lose him for a while, but it's great that he's going and helping Team Canada. Then he can come back and continue what he's doing, because he's making it tough on everybody."

Aaron Ashby, meanwhile, threw 27 pitc6hes over two scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a walk in his official spring debut.

"It's good to feel the intensity. Good to have some adrenaline, be a little nervous for whatever reason," he said. "It just felt good to get down the mound in a more intense way.

"Not completely satisfied with how I executed some of the off-speed stuff, but I thought the sinker was really good today."

– Entering Thursday, Milwaukee pitchers in major league camp had pitched only 18 of a possible 56 innings through six Cactus League games.

The setup is entirely intentional, as the Brewers (3-4) keep their eye on slow, conservative build-ups for their key arms in an attempt to keep them as healthy as possible heading into the season.

To this point, starters Brandon Woodruff, Quinn Priester, Jacob Misiorowski, Brandon Sproat (scheduled for Friday), Kyle Harrison, Shane Drohan and Chad Patrick (scheduled for Sunday) all had yet to see action in a true game setting.

"I think part of it being we had a really long season last year, and there's work that is equally important that we can get done on back fields, where you can kind of pay attention to more stuff," Ashby explained. "I think the intent early on here was to get quality work in camp, kind of behind closed doors, and make sure everyone's in a really good spot.

"Another week, two weeks, there'll be a lot more game reps and more of a normal spring training."

DL Hall matched Ashby's two innings of work, allowing a run on three hits and a walk with a strikeout over 39 pitches.

Two scoreless innings, four strikeouts and a save for young left-hander Tate Kuehner. Not a bad day’s work: pic.twitter.com/jJGLGNESX9

— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) February 26, 2026

– Left-hander Tate Kuehner pitched two scoreless innings to end the game, striking out four and collecting a save for an impressive performance in his first major league camp.

A seventh-round pick out of Louisville in 2023, he's caught the eye of Murphy this spring.

"He's been impressive in the lives. He's been impressive in the games," Murphy said. "He's an impressive kid. I've got great reports on him from the guys that coaches him last year. Seems like he's got the intangibles.

– Hat tip to Black and his skills of concentration, as he collected his second hit in as many at-bats against Kumar Rocker – a third-inning single to right – at the same time a fighter jet from nearby Luke Air Force Base screamed by overhead.