Wade Miley, defense shut down Dodgers in 1-0 Brewer win

WP: Wade Miley (2-1); LP: Walker Buehler (4-4); Save: Jeremy Jeffress (4); Homeruns - none

A nice, concise Box Score

You see? Baseball games don’t need to go four hours. In two hours and seventeen minutes at Dodger Stadium tonight the Milwaukee Brewers (63-47) nipped the LA Dodgers (59-49) 1-0 to climb back into a first place tie with the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 losers to the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight.

Both starting pitchers were in charge tonight. For the Brewers, Wade Miley went seven shutout innings, allowing only two hits (both singles) and two walks. He struck out five. The outing lowered his ERA to 1.53. Dodger rookie Walker Buhler also had a seven inning start, limiting Milwaukee to five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.

The only run in the game came in the top of the third. With two down and nobody on Christian Yelich beat out an infield single. Lorenzo Cain drilled an RBI double into the gap in right center as Yelich scored without a throw. Mike Moustakas singled into the shift but second baseman Enrique Hernandez knocked the ball down with a dive, scrambled after the ball, and threw out Cain at the plate to end the inning. It looked like LA catcher Austin Barnes perhaps blocked the plate without the ball, but Craig Counsell declined to challenge. 1-0 Brewers.

Joakim Soria and Jeremy Jeffress worked last night and came back for an inning each tonight and both were much better the second time around. Soria went with his fastball more tonight and had a 1-2-3 eighth. Jeffress got the top of the order in the ninth and got two flyballs to Cain in center around a strikeout of Manny Machado with a wicked slider, earning his fourth save of the year.

Milwaukee made several good to very good to excellent defensive plays behind Miley. It wasn’t a great play, but the Brewers turned a double play in the bottom of the first on an around the horn play from Moustakas to Travis Shaw to Jesus Aguilar - the first chance for the Mayor to get his feet wet on the turn.

Moustakas took a hit away from Chris Taylor on a diving stop and throw leading off the sixth, and Shaw made a diving catch on a soft liner from Max Muncy leading off the bottom of the seventh.

The play of the game came on Miley’s last pitch. Cody Bellinger golfed a low curve ball deep to center that looked like it was going to tie the game, but Cain timed his leap perfectly and robbed the Dodger centerfielder of the dinger. Miley was excited; Cain was excited; the rest of the team was excited; and those of us watching were excited.

Miley, Soria, and Jeffress retired 22 of the last 23 batters they faced; Austin Barnes’ two out single to left in the fifth was the only base runner after Yasiel Puig’s second inning, two out single.

So July ends with the Cubs and Brewers tied for first, heading into the final two months of the season with the possibility of a real barn burner of a race. Milwaukee’s Chase Anderson (7-7, 3.69) goes for the second series win on the two city west coast tour. The Dodgers’ Rich Hill (4-4, 3.82) will face him. The Brewers are guaranteed a winning trip. Stay greedy, Crew!