Offense finally backs up Peralta: Brewers 6, Dodgers 3

Brewers Starting Pitcher: Wily Peralta 
Opponent Starting Pitcher: Joe Wieland

Winning Pitcher: Wily Peralta
Losing Pitcher: Joe Wieland

SV: Francisco Rodriguez

HR: Scooter "Beefy" Gennett (1), Adam Lind (5), Joc Pederson x2 (9)

FanGraphs' WPA Chart
Boxscore

The Dodgers decided to replace International Man of Mystery TBD with young Joe Wieland. It was not a wise decision. Carlos Gomez lead off the inning with a single and Beefy Gennett brought the pair home with a home run, his first of the season. Then Ryan Braun drew a walk and Adam Lind brought the pair home with a pop-up home run. Seriously, I thought it was a lazy fly to right field but it just kept flying. Khris Davis also drew a walk but was erased by a force out from Jean Segura who still reached on an error. He made up for it by stealing second base and Martin Maldonado drove him in with a single. The Brewers rocked the Dodgers for 5 runs in the first inning which was the first time an opponent had scored 5 in an inning against them all season.

The Dodgers scored their first run in the top of the fourth inning on a least one error. With one out and Adrian Gonzalez at first base Justin Turner grounded to second baseman Scooter Gennet who underhanded the throw to Segura who was covering second. They got the out there but the throw sailed a bit and Segura dropped it on the transfer so Turner was safe at first. Then Andre Ethier grounded softly between the Segura and Aramis Ramirez. Neither really committed nor called the other off and instead of just eating it Segura made an off-balanced throw to first that went wide. Turner never stopped running and scored but that would be the limit of the damage that inning.

The Dodgers second run was less messy. It was just a solo shot off the bat of Joc Pederson in the fifth. Once again the damage would end there as the third out was made on the next pitch.

The Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles attempted to tempt fate in the bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs Adam Lind hit an opposite field double. Aramis Ramirez was then intentionally walked to get to the struggling Khris Davis who drew a four pitch walk. Then future 2015 National League Comeback Player of the Year Jean Segura worked the count full after falling back 0-2 to draw the bases loaded RBI walk.

Three super fun things happened in the bottom of the sixth inning. One you can read about in the Outstanding Offense section. The second was Scooter Gennett striking out. That's not fun you say? Well he reached base safely because the catcher whiffed on the block and it went all the way to the backstop. Finally Ryan Braun singled to right field. Gennett went to third on the play but that's not the super fun part. After the play was seemingly over, but before anyone called time out or the next at-bat started, no one was covering second base while the pitcher held the ball. Braun started slowly walking from first to second and when he realized the pitcher wasn't paying any attention to what he was doing he was off. He reached second base without a throw. That's the definition of heads-up base running and it was hilarious. Unfortunately with a lefty on the mound Lind would sky out to end the inning. But at this point the Brewers were winning 6-2 so it was still a really fun inning.

The Dodgers would get one back in the top of the eighth inning as Joc Pederson would hit his second solo shot of the night.

But all that did was put the game back into save territory for Francisco Rodriguez. Adrian Gonzalez reached base in all but two plate appearances (I think just 2) and leading off the ninth was no different for him. He doubled but the next three batters would be retired easily and the Brewers would win by a score of 6 to 3.

They improve their season record to 9-18.

Outstanding Offensive Play

Wily Peralta was leading off in the bottom of the sixth inning. The beast was finally unleashed and he absolutely crushed a ball to the deepest part of center field. It was almost a home run. It was almost a hit. But Joc Pederson got there in time. I know it was just an out and it's strange to include in this section, but it was fun to watch and it deserves acknowledgement!

Outstanding Pitching Performance

Wily Peralta was pretty solid tonight. He went 8 IP with 7 H (2 HR) 3 R 2 ER 6 K. Except for the home runs it was quite the outing and marked his second good outing in a row. ERA doesn't mean as much as we once thought but it's still nice to see him get it (and his xFIP) back under 4.00.

One thing I noticed that I'll have to check out tomorrow was his velocity. So far this season FanGraphs has his average fastball velocity down around 93.8 mph but that's skewed a bit by one outing where his fastball averaged 91.9. Without that his average velocity is closer to 94.2. Tonight though he was sitting 95-96 and hit 97 more than once. That's what his peak velocity looks like. I know the plan with Jimmy Nelson was to have him dial his fast ball back in order to gain some better command. It's worked with him for the most part. I wonder if Peralta had been trying something similar and decided to scrap that plan. It is possible that he's still building up arm strength as it's early in the season.

Review of the Day

This was back in the fifth inning after Segura drew the RBI walk with bases loaded. Immediately following that Martin Maldonado lined sharply to third baseman Justin Turner who lobbed a throw to first seemingly pulling Adrian Gonzalez off the bag. Don Mattingly challenged the call and after review Maldonado was called out. It was really close but one angle did seem to show Gonzalez with his toe just on the bag for an instant before Maldonado got there. Super close though.

I've Never Seen That Before

In the bottom of the fourth inning Carlos Gomez was at the plate when he called for time-out. The umpire granted it and Gomez proceeded to swat at a fly or some gnats that were in front of home plate. This means nothing at all. I've just never seen it before and I couldn't help but giggle.

Next Game:

Thursday May 7, 12:40 pm CST: Mike Fiers vs Carlos Frias