Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Robert Gasser throws to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 23, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser is heading back to the minors one day after he was unable to protect an early three-run lead in a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Brewers announced Sunday they were optioning Gasser to Triple-A Nashville and recalling right-hander Carlos Rodriguez. Later on Sunday, the Brewers reinstated outfielder Akil Baddoo from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Nashville.

Gasser, who turns 27 on May 31, went 0-1 with a 6.48 ERA in two games with Milwaukee. He struck out seven but walked six over 8 1/3 innings.

Rodriguez pitched two innings of scoreless relief Sunday in the Brewers’ 5-1 loss to the Dodgers.

Gasser gave up three runs, two earned, in four innings in a 5-4 loss at Minnesota on May 17. He followed that up by allowing four runs over 4 1/3 innings in an 11-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

He held the Dodgers scoreless for the first three innings as Milwaukee took a 3-0 lead, but the Dodgers scored four runs against him in the fourth. Gasser allowed a three-run homer to Teoscar Hernández that put the Dodgers ahead for good.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Saturday’s game that he believed Gasser might have been tipping his pitches. Los Angeles’ Andy Pages was on second base and appeared to be motioning with his arms or making some type of signal while Hernández was at the plate.

“There’s a huge emphasis on making sure they can’t get your signs from second base — there’s a huge emphasis on it,” Murphy said. “Pitchers have to be able to not give away anything. It’s gotten to (be) a science. Every team does it. We do it. Every team does it. Some teams do it less subtle than others. He got caught up and gave away some pitches, and it ended up hurting him.”

Gasser said after the game that he did notice Pages making hand signals, but the left-hander added that he didn’t know whether he was tipping anything off.

“It’s definitely something that’s come up before, and I thought I had a good grip on it and was covering it up,” Gasser said. “I don’t know. Maybe they had something. Maybe not.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked Sunday whether the Dodgers had noticed a way in which Gasser was tipping his pitches or if they were simply bluffing.

“Whether you have them to disguise or act like you have them, (there’s) the gamesmanship part of it,” Roberts said. “If you can kind of make a pitcher feel that you’ve got their signs, then you’ve already won. Honestly, right there, I don’t think we had the signs. I think Teo took a good swing and it wasn’t really a great pitch. Yeah, I’m honestly not certain.”

Rodriguez had gone 0-0 with a 2.25 ERA in two relief appearances with Milwaukee earlier this season. His performance Sunday improved his ERA to 1.50. He was 0-3 with an 8.03 ERA in five starts and three relief appearances with Nashville.

Gasser is 0-0 with a 3.74 ERA in six starts with Nashville.

Dodgers 5,

Brewers 1

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Andy Pages hit a two-run homer immediately after Kyle Tucker delivered a tiebreaking two-run triple in the fifth inning to back up Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s strong pitching as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 5-1 on Sunday.

Los Angeles won two of three in Milwaukee this weekend to cap a 7-2 trip. The Brewers had gone 6-0-1 over their last seven series before losing this one.

Yamamoto (4-4) allowed one run over seven innings while facing the Brewers for the first time since throwing a three-hitter in Game 2 of last season’s NL Championship Series, another 5-1 Dodgers triumph in Milwaukee.

Will Klein worked the eighth and Tanner Scott pitched the ninth as Los Angeles’ bullpen extended its modern-day franchise record streak of scoreless innings to 38. According to Sportradar, the last time any major league bullpen had this long a streak was in September 2017, when Cleveland relievers threw 39 straight scoreless innings.

The game was tied 1-all when Los Angeles’ Mookie Betts led off the fifth inning with a single off Brandon Sproat, who then walked Freddie Freeman before leaving the game. Tucker greeted Shane Drohan by sending a 3-2 pitch just inside the right-field line to score Betts and Freeman.

Pages drove Drohan’s next pitch over the left-field wall to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 5-1. The 380-foot blast was the first homer Drohan has allowed, and it came on the rookie’s 10th career appearance.

Sproat (1-3) continually pitched out of trouble until running out of gas in the fifth.

The Dodgers left two men on base in three of the first four innings. They got one run in the fourth when Teoscar Hernández scored on a wild pitch after Sproat hit Miguel Rojas with a pitch to load the bases.

Jake Bauers scored Milwaukee’s lone run in the second inning.

Up next

Brewers: Jacob Misiorowski (4-2, 1.89) matches up with St. Louis’ Matthew Liberatore (2-2, 4.70) on Monday as the Brewers open a home series.