Tonight’s game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Indians had all the makings of a pitcher’s duel — at least in the early going. Corbin Burnes started for the visitors, opposed by Carlos Carrasco.
Burnes was the more dominant of the two, allowing only three hits and a pair of walks over the course of 6.0 innings. He allowed one run, which was unearned and came in the fifth frame. Burnes loaded the bases with no one out, then whiffed Austin Hedges. He induced a grounder from Delino Deshields that Luis Urias fielded and threw home, getting a forceout. But catcher Jacob Nottingham’s throwing attempt to first base went for an error and Tyler Naquin scampered around to score.
Carrasco worked around considerably more traffic, allowing six hits and three walks across 6.0 innings pitched. He too allowed only one run, however, which came in the fourth. With two outs and the bases loaded, Urias recorded an infield single that scored Jedd Gyorko.
Milwaukee was able to bust this game open against Cleveland’s bullpen in the late innings. Phil Maton was the first man out of the ‘pen, and he walked the first hitter he faced in Urias. A one-out single by Ben Gamel moved the runners to first and third, then Keston Hiura doubled to score Urias and make it 2-1. Lefty Oliver Perez came in to face Christian Yelich, but he reached on an error by first baseman Carlos Santana that allowed both runners to come in and score to make it 4-1. After that, Ryan Braun singled to score Yelich from second to extend Milwaukee’s advantage to 5-1.
The Brewers added two more in the eighth when Huira went deep off James Karinchak while Jacob Nottingham was on second base to make it 7-1. Brent Suter pitched a pair of scoreless frames after Burnes and Alex Claudio tossed the ninth to finish this victory out for Milwaukee.
Now at 18-19, the Brewers could even their record back up at .500 tomorrow with another victory over Cleveland in game two of the series. Brandon Woodruff will face off against Aaron Civale with first pitch slated for 6:10 PM central.