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W: Peralta, 16-10
L: Cosart, 13-9
HR: Clark (1), Ozuna (21)
It can't be stressed enough how badly the Brewers needed this one tonight. It was a solid effort all around, from a great pitching performance across starter and bullpen, and enough timely hitting to bring home a W. But make no mistake, this what Matt Clark's night. The current 3rd string third baseman was given a start to see if he could provide a spark, and it worked-- he drove in 2 runs and the Brewers were able to win it 4-1.
In the first, Aramis Ramirez sent a base hit to left that nearly scored Jonathan Lucroy. Christian Yelich made a good throw home from left and Lucroy was called out. Replay seemed to show that Lucroy got a foot in before the tag, but the umpires held up the call. The Brewers scored runs in the 3rd and 4th on sacrifice flies by starting pitcher Wily Peralta and starting 1st baseman and September callup Matt Clark, respectively.
Peralta cruised through 6, only giving up 2 hits. He ran into trouble in the 7th while running up against 100 pitches. Marcell Ozuna led off the inning with his 22nd home run of the year, and then he allowed back-to-back 1 out singles. Peralta got the 2nd out on a flyout to center and was removed in favor of Zach Duke. Duke walked lefty Christian Yelich, and Roenicke made a desparation move to bring in Jonathan Broxton with the bases loaded and 2 out. Broxton induced a flyout to right to escape the inning.
In the bottom of the 7th, Clark hit his first big league home run just over the outstretched glove of Giancarlo Stanton to give the Brewers a much-needed cushion. They added a 4th run when Jean Segura reached on an error and eventually scored on a swinging bunt by Carlos Gomez. Broxton completed his night of work by working a perfect 8th, mowing down Stanton, McGehee, and Ozuna.
K-Rod returned to the scene of the crime in his first save opportunity since the blown save in San Diego that started this awful stretch. Two flyouts two deep-ish left center, a base hit to left, and a groundout later, it was all over. According to Davey Nelson on the postgame show, "Maybe, just maybe, the worm has turned," which is apparently an expression that means something weak finally taking control of the situation. The Brewers stay 1.5 back and play at Miller Park again tomorrow night at 7:10.