Brewers take 11-inning game in Seattle, 6-5

Box Score

The Brewers had their second extra-inning game in the last six days on Tuesday night, winning 6-5 over the Seattle Mariners in 11 innings as the bullpen once again looked strong for Milwaukee.

Christian Yelich jumped on Logan Gilbert early, hitting a leadoff homer on a 3-2 count to give the Brewers a quick 1-0 lead. The Brewers continued to have good at-bats early on, as Gilbert threw 20-plus pitches in each of the first three innings.

In the top of the third, the Brewers tacked on two more runs as Owen Miller had a hustle double, Yelich drove him in with a single, and Willy Adames drove Yelich in with a two-out double to make it 3-0.

After a strong first two innings from Colin Rea, he ran into trouble in the third. Rea gave up back-to-back singles to Julio Rodriguez and Ty France before hitting Eugenio Suarez to load the bases. The Mariners went on to score four runs in the inning as Cal Raleigh doubled home Rodriguez and France before Teoscar Hernandez drove in Suarez. Raleigh scored the go-ahead run on a single by Tommy La Stella to make it 4-3 Mariners.

After the third, Rea and Gilbert both settled down, allowing no runs in the fourth or fifth. The Brewers got on the board again in the sixth via a solo homer from Adames, who hit a high fastball out to right to tie the game up at 4-4.

Both bullpens looked strong, as neither allowed a run in innings 7-9, sending the game to extra innings.

In the 10th, former Brewer Trevor Gott got the call for the Mariners out of the bullpen. With Garrett Mitchell starting the inning on second, Victor Caratini hit a hard grounder to France at first base. Instead of taking the ball to first, France threw to third, where Mitchell evaded the tag of Suarez to advance safely and put runners at the corners with no outs.

Brice Turang then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, allowing Mitchell to score and giving Milwaukee a 5-4 lead. On the play, it appeared that Turang may have beat the throw to first and Jose Callabero may have stepped off second base prior to making the catch; however, crew chief Alan Porter decided Craig Counsell opted to challenge too late, allowing the play to stand.

In the bottom half of the inning, Counsell turned to Bryse Wilson to lock down the game. With Kolten Wong at second to start the inning, Wilson threw a wild pitch, allowing Wong to advance to third before getting an out. He then induced a groundout from Rodriguez before allowing France to hit a sac fly to Mitchell to knot the game at 5-5.

After the play, Mitchell was removed from the game due to an upper-body injury from his slide in the top half of the inning, forcing Brian Anderson to move to right, Joey Wiemer to move to center, and putting Mike Brosseau in the game at third base. As of this writing, the Brewers had not provided an update about Mitchell’s status, but his exit is not a promising sign considering the Brewers' slew of injuries in the first three weeks of the season.

Wilson then allowed back-to-back singles to Suarez and Raleigh to put runners at first and second but got out of the jam with a three-pitch strikeout of Hernandez.

In the 11th, the Mariners brought in another former Brewer in Justin Topa. Wiemer started the inning at second and moved to third on a groundout by Yelich. With runners at the corners, Adames hit a soft grounder to Caballero, allowing Wiemer to score, and giving Milwaukee a 6-5 lead.

Wilson returned for the bottom of the 11th, immediately getting a lineout from Jarred Kelenic to start the inning. He then walked Cooper Hummel, induced a force out from Caballero, and walked J.P. Crawford to load the bases with two outs. A groundout from Rodriguez ended the game and moved the Brewers to 2-0 in extra innings this season.

Rea went five innings and allowed four runs on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts. The Brewers bullpen of Hoby Milner, Joel Payamps, Matt Bush, Devin Williams, and Wilson combined for six innings of one-run baseball — a run that was unearned due to the extra-inning rule — allowing just four walks and two hits while striking out eight.

Yelich went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in the win, while Adames went 2-for-5 with three RBIs.

The win guarantees the Brewers a winning road trip, as they move to 6-3 over the first nine games on the 10-game trip. Milwaukee goes for a sweep of the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon with Eric Lauer on the mound against Marco Gonzales in a battle of lefties. First pitch is at 3:10 p.m. CT.