Brewers complete sweep, thump D’Backs 9-2

WP: Brent Suter (4-3); LP: Zack Godley (4-4); Save: none; Homeruns: Ari - Paul Goldschmidt (4), John Murphy (5); Mil - Travis Shaw (12); Tyler Saladino (3)

Some nice things in today’s Box Score

Brent Suter does lots of things well for the Milwaukee Brewers, including pitch. His 5 ²⁄₃ innings of solid pitching in a spot start, combined with a seven run fourth inning, led the Milwaukee Brewers (31-19) to an easy 9-2 win over the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks (25-24) in an afternoon game at Miller Park.

Suter also contributed a sacrifice bunt in that big fourth inning that was so well placed that it forced an errant throw from Paul Goldschmidt, helping lead the way to those seven runs. (He later scored the go-ahead run.) He made a great play on a bunt from Socrates Brito in the top of that inning, running down the drag bunt and flipping underhand to nip Brito. Brent allowed two solo homers in the second inning, and back to back singles leading off the third - but he pitched out of that. In his 5 ²⁄₃ innings he gave up the four hits and two runs, walked two, and struck out six.

Milwaukee had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a one-out double off of the wall in right by Christian Yelich and an RBI single from Jesus Aguilar. After Aguilar’s single the Brewers loaded the bases with two walks, added two more walks in the second and a single in the third, but couldn’t plate any more runs.

Jett Bandy singled (not a triple) leading off the bottom of the fourth, followed by Suter’s bunt, putting runners at first and second. Hernan Perez lined out to deep left and Bandy tagged and barely made it into third, a call held up on appeal. Yelich walked on four pitches, loading the bases, and Aguilar poked a single up the middle to put Milwaukee back on top 3-2.

Travis Shaw followed with a line drive homer off of the second deck facing to put Milwaukee up 6-2, and with the struggles that the D’Backs have had offensively, you had to feel pretty confident. But wait! There’s more! Domingo Santana doubled off of the left field wall, and Zack Godley walked his sixth batter of the afternoon, ending his day. Tyler Saladino greeted reliever Fernando Salas with a single to center that was misplayed by Chris Owings for Arizona’s second error of the inning. That scored Santana (earned) and Jonathan Villar (not earned), and ended the scoring with the Brewers up 8-2.

The Brewer bats were silent after that except for a seventh inning lead-off homerun by Saladino. Salad had two ribbies for the game, Aguilar three, and Shaw three. The D’Backs were held hitless over seven innings after the two singles in the top of the third. The bullpen (Taylor Williams, Boone Logan, and Brandon Woodruff) had 3 ¹⁄₃ perfect innings with six strikeouts - three of them in the ninth by Woodruff.

As reported by FS Wisconsin during the game, the Brewers held Arizona to 22 hits over the six games they played this season, which is a record for the fewest allowed in a six game set ever. Wow. Also, the Brewers 31-19 record is their best through 50 games ever.

So we bid a fond farewell to the Arizona Diamondback and welcome in the New York Mets for a four game set this weekend. After a hot start, the Mets (24-20) have leveled off, but have gone 6-4 over their last ten going into tonight’s game. With the Cardinal’s loss this afternoon, the Crew holds a 3 ¹⁄₂ game edge over the division pending this evening’s results.

New York, of course, has very good starting pitching, and they will lead off with Steven Matz (1-3, 4.42). Zach Davies (2-3, 4.24) will return from the DL to start for Milwaukee, with Brandon Woodruff going back to AAA to make room. Also, Ryan Braun is returning from the disabled list so Woody will be joined for his journey by Ji-man Choi. Matz is a lefty, so we can expect Braun in the line-up right away. I expect Yelich to get a day off with Aguilar at first.