The Brewers and Marlins combined for 19 runs on 34 hits at Miller Park Sunday afternoon, and the Brewers did a better job of bunching their hits together to win 14-5. Miami stranded 11, while the Brewers left only 5 on base.
Chris Carter led the Brewers with two homers and a double, and just missed a third homer on a flyball to right that was in the air for about a minute and probably scraped the roof. Jonathon Villar, Ryan Braun, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis also contributed 3 hits each. For the Marlins, Martin Prado, Derek Dietrich, and J.T. Realmuto all had three hits. It was a very hitterish day.
You usually don't lead off writing about a scoreless inning, but it was noteworthy that Wily Peralta didn't give up any runs in the top of the first. The Brewers had allowed 4 total in the first two games and did not have the lead in either game. Peralta pitched around two two-out singles, using high heat to get Justin Bohr to foul out to Colin Walsh at third to end the inning.
That meant that Domingo Santana's opposite field homer over the faux fence in right actually gave the Brewers a lead. Villar slapped a double down the leftfield line off of rightie Tom Kohler, and Braun smoked a single to center to score Villar. Two zip Brewers.
The Marlins halved the lead in the top of the third as Ichiro Suzuki dropped a bat-handle bloop in front of Braun in left, and Braunie kicked the shorthop, resulting in a double. Prado singled Ichiro home. The Brewers failed to turn a routine double play grounder to second, but Wily escaped a 2 on, 1 out threat with flyballs to center from Bohr and Marell Obuma. Both outs came on high fastballs.
The Brewers plated seven in the bottom of the third, flushing Kohler from the game. (Eight earnies in 2 1/3...oh my.) The Crew amassed 6 hits and 3 walks, with a two run homer from Carter. Kohler and Cody Ege combined to walk in two, and Villar moved to a three hit day after three innings with his second opposite field double of the afternoon. The Brewers have had a three run inning, a four run inning, a two run inning, and a six run inning in this series. They would later add a two run and four run inning. I'm concerned with their inability to scratch out a one run inning.
Another crooked number in the bottom of the fourth extended the lead to 11-1. Carter's second homer of the day, a laser into the leftfield corner, and an RBI single from Martin Maldanado provided the fun. It was The Machete's first hit this year, and featured Ed Sedar windmilling Colin Walsh into an out at the plate on a nice throw from Ichiro.
Miami started to climb back into things with a three spot in the top of the fifth. Wily was hit hard, allowing a solid single to Prado, a triple to Yount's Ally from Derek Dietrich, and a long blast from Marell Ozuma into deep left. Through 5, Peralta allowed 4 runs on 10 hits with a walk...sigh. Craig Counsell still sent him out for the sixth, and he continued to struggle, allowing a run on 3 more hits before Blaine Boyer came in to retire Giancarlo Stanton on a broken bat flyball to center. The lead was down to 11-5.
The Brewers bullpen stopped the Marlins from getting any closer the rest of the way. There were baserunners, as usual (the Marlins had only two 3 up, 3 down innings in the three games), but Boyer and David Goforth kept the Fish off the board in the seventh and eighth. The Crew put things away with a 3 run eighth, highlighted by a double off the wall in rightcenter from Nieuwenhuis - off of lefty Craig Breslow. Hernan Perez, a defensive replacement at third for Colin Walsh, drove in the final run with a single to right.
Jeremy Jeffress needed some work, so he came in to finish the game in the ninth. A lead-off single was erased by a game ending double play, and the Brewers avoided a winless week.
The Brewers move to 9-15, and will return to interleague play with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, U.S.A., North America, Planet Earth coming to Milwaukee Monday night. The Angels were 11-13 entering Sunday's game with Texas. Veteran Jered Weaver (3-0) will face Brewers' ace Jimmy Nelson (3-2).