Brewers hold off Padres 5-4 for seventh straight win

Box Score

For the second straight day, the Brewers had a five-run inning. This time, they didn’t have much more than that on offense, but they didn’t need more. Freddy Peralta had another good start and the Brewers bullpen held on for a 5-4 win on Saturday night.

After trading walks in the first inning, the Padres struck first in the second inning. Xander Bogaerts led off the inning with a solo home run to put the Padres ahead 1-0. From there, Freddy Peralta settled in. He didn’t allow another baserunner until a single with two outs in the fifth inning.

Meanwhile, the Brewers offense needed a bit of time to warm up. Their first scoring chance came in the third inning, when the first two hitters (Andruw Monasterio and Tyrone Taylor) reached on a single and hit by pitch. Unfortunately, the Brewers couldn’t cash those in as Christian Yelich grounded into a double play and William Contreras grounded out to end the inning.

After a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, the offense fully came alive in the fifth. Three straight singles from Mark Canha, Brice Turang, and Andruw Monasterio started the inning. Monasterio’s also drove in the Brewers’ first run, tying the game at 1-1. After Tyrone Taylor grounded out to erase Turang, Monasterio and Taylor pulled off a double steal, and a throwing error by Luis Campusano allowed Monasterio to score. Yelich walked to follow, and Contreras then brought in both with a double and an error, putting the Brewers ahead 4-1.

The Padres made a pitching change there and brought in Scott Barlow, but Carlos Santana kept the scoring going with an RBI double to extend the lead to 5-1.

Peralta came back out for the sixth inning but his day came to an end shortly after that. He walked two of the three batters he saw to start the inning, and Elvis Peguero came in to relieve Peralta. Peguero started by giving up a single to Manny Machado that scored a run, closing the gap to 5-2. However, Peguero got Bogaerts to ground out into a double play to end the inning.

After the Brewers failed to add to the lead in the sixth, Peguero came back out for the seventh inning. He got into trouble right away after walking leadoff hitter Campusano. Ben Gamel then reached on a missed catch from Willy Adames, bringing up Garrett Cooper. Cooper hit a deep fly ball to left center that could have scored one, if not both runners. Yelich made sure that didn’t happen as he made a jumping catch into the outfield wall for the out. From there, Peguero struck out Trent Grisham and got a groundout from Ha-Seong Kim to end the inning.

Joel Payamps came in for the eighth inning. The game got a little tense from there as Fernando Tatis Jr. singled to lead off the inning, and then Juan Soto homered to make it a one-run game. Payamps got through the eighth with no other issues after that, but the lead was down to 5-4.

Devin Williams took the ninth to finish out the game. With a great infield play from Brice Turang, Williams got through the inning with no issues on his way to his 31st save and the Brewers seventh straight win.

Andruw Monasterio led the offense with a 2-for-3 day, and Carlos Santana and Mark Canha also each reached base twice with a hit and a walk. William Contreras had the big hit of the day in a 1-for-4 game with two RBI. The only issue was in the middle of the lineup, where Sal Frelick went 0-for-4 and Willy Adames went 0-for-3 with a walk.

Freddy Peralta didn’t quite hit the double-digit strikeout level again, but was close with a nine strikeout day over 5 ²⁄₃ innings. He was charged for two runs on two hits and three walks in the start. In the bullpen, Elvis Peguero allowed a hit and a walk with a strikeout, and Joel Payamps allowed two runs on two hits. Devin Williams finished the game with two strikeouts in a scoreless inning.

With today’s win, the Brewers extended their winning streak to seven games. During this winning streak, they’ve scored a minimum of five runs per game, and a total of 48 runs over the seven games. They’ve allowed 28 runs in the seven games, and 15 of those came in two games (eight last Friday and seven on Wednesday).

The Brewers maintain a four-game lead in the NL Central with their win today. Both the Cubs and Reds also won, so the standings remain the same. The Brewers will try to extend the winning streak to eight games tomorrow, when they go for their third straight series sweep. Adrian Houser faces Michael Wacha in the final game of the series. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.