With Brandon Woodruff heading to the paternity list, the Milwaukee Brewers elected to go with Brent Suter and a bullpen day for their Monday series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The offense staked the Raptor to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, when singles by Ben Gamel, Jedd Gyorko, and Eric Sogard — coupled with an error Kevin Newman — led to two runs crossing the plate.
Suter gave those runs right back in the top of the third inning, however. Cole Tucker walked on four pitches and then Erik Gonzalez hit an 83 MPH fastball over the fence in left field to knot the game up at 2-2. An RBI single in the bottom of the third by Gamel tilted the advantage back towards Milwaukee, 3-2.
In the fourth, another Newman error led to Milwaukee’s fourth run scoring. Omar Narvaez doubled to lead off, then Jace Peterson took a walk. After a lineout by Sogard, Luis Urias grounded a ball to first. Colin Moran fielded it and threw to Newman at second base for the force, but the return throw on the double play attempt was scored an error as Urias reached. Narvaez scored on the plate to make it 4-2. Milwaukee added another single run in the fifth inning, coming on Keston Hiura’s eighth home run of the season.
Suter was lifted after allowing two runs in 3.0 innings, and Drew Rasmussen came in behind him and let in another run while covering two frames. Freddy Peralta entered the game in the sixth inning with the score at 5-3. He struck out Josh Bell to start, then walked Moran and served up a double to Jacob Stallings to put runners on second and third. A punchout to Gregory Polanco gave him a chance to get out of the inning unscathed, but Jose Osuna delivered a two-run single to center to tie the game up a 5 apiece.
Devin Williams came on with one out in the seventh after Peralta hit Adam Frazier with a pitch, and he continued his torrid strikeout pace by recording K’s for 4 of his 5 outs in this outing. After Williams navigated through the seventh and eighth innings without allowing a run, the offense rewarded him by taking the lead and putting him in line for the ‘W’. Gamel led off the bottom of the eighth with a double, but remained at second base as the next two batters grounded out to third. Pinch-hitter Avisail Garcia was intentionally walked, which then brought pinch-hitter Orlando Arcia up to the dish. He delivered a single to left that scored Gamel and put the Brewers up, 6-5.
That’s where the score would end up at after Josh Hader struck out the side in the ninth inning, recording his eighth save of the season. With the win, the Cream City Nine moves their record to 16-18. Next up, the Detroit Tigers come to town for a quick two-game set beginning tomorrow night. First pitch at Miller Park is scheduled for 6:40 PM central.