Red Sox’ nine-run eighth inning sinks Brewers, 12-5

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers went for a series win in the rubber match with the Boston Red Sox Sunday afternoon, but a huge nine-run eighth inning from Boston gave them enough breathing room to steal a series on the road.

With Corbin Burnes on the mound, the Red Sox wasted no time in the first inning, as Alex Verdugo and Justin Turner each hit singles before Masataka Yoshida drove in Verdugo on a sac fly to put Boston up 1-0.

The Red Sox added to their lead in the second inning, as four of the first five batters reached and Rafael Devers capped off a two-run inning with another sac fly that resulted in a 3-0 lead despite the Brewers turning a double play on Connor Wong at third.

Milwaukee got back into the game in the fourth inning, as Brian Anderson hit his fourth homer of the season to close the deficit to 3-1.

The Brewers added two more runs in the fifth to knot the game at 3-3, as Joey Wiemer doubled, Christian Yelich hit an RBI single, and Willy Adames hit a sac fly.

Milwaukee then took the lead in the seventh, as a walk, stolen base, and sacrifice bunt moved Wiemer to third base. He then scored on a wild pitch by Kaleb Ort, making it 4-3 entering the eighth.

To preserve the lead, Craig Counsell turned to Matt Bush. However, Bush, who has had his difficulties since joining Milwaukee at the trade deadline last season, immediately gave up a game-tying homer to Justin Turner. The Red Sox wouldn’t stop there, with six hits and three walks in the inning, capped off by a grand slam from Yoshida, who hit two homers in the inning to push the Red Sox lead to 12-4.

With the lead out of reach, Anderson hit his fifth homer of the season and second homer of the day to lead off the bottom of the eighth, making it 12-5, a score that held through the final inning of the game.

Anderson’s two homers mark his second multi-homer game of the season. Wiemer was the only other Brewer to have two hits on the day.

On the mound, Burnes went five innings and gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts. Bush earned the loss, giving up four runs in just ¹⁄₃ inning of work, while Javy Guerra gave up five runs in 1 ²⁄₃ innings of work. The poor outings from Bush and Guerra pushed their season ERAs to 8.22 and 8.64, respectively.

With the loss and the Pittsburgh Pirates on a seven-game winning streak, Milwaukee falls into second place at 15-7, ¹⁄₂ game back of the 16-7 Pirates. Milwaukee will look to return to their winning ways with the 7-13 Detroit Tigers in town beginning on Monday for a three-game set. Colin Rea gets the ball against Matthew Boyd in the series opener, which begins at 6:40 p.m.