Brewers get third straight comeback win, sweep White Sox

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers overcame a rough first inning from Freddy Peralta to pick up a 6-3 victory this afternoon, completing a sweep of the struggling Chicago White Sox, who have now lost 11 straight games. It was the fifth straight win for the Brewers, who capitalized on the White Sox’s uninspired play and rough bullpen to win for the third time in this series in a game in which they were losing.

Peralta, working on four days rest after throwing a season-high 111 pitches on Tuesday, didn’t get off to a good start. After striking out leadoff hitter Tommy Pham, Peralta gave up back-to-back singles to Nicky Lopez and Corey Julks. Both advanced on a wild pitch, and Gavin Sheets hit a 3-0 fastball into right field for an RBI single. Julks was held at third and Peralta had a chance to get out of the inning, but Paul DeJong followed with a sac fly (and worked seven pitches out of Peralta) to make it 2-0. Peralta struggled to put away Korey Lee as well, as he fouled off four pitches with two strikes and eventually walked on the 10th pitch. As his pitch count sailed past 40, Peralta finally struck out Oscar Colás. The White Sox only got two runs, but it took Peralta 43 pitches to get through the inning, portending a short start for the Brewers’ ace.

It looked like the Brewers might get off to a good start offensively against Nick Nastrini, when Nastrini (who has struggled with command) walked leadoff hitter Brice Turang and then fell behind William Contreras 3-1. But Contreras grounded into a double play and Christian Yelich followed with a groundout to second base, helping Nastrini get through a quick, clean inning.

In need of a quick inning himself, Peralta found his strikeout stuff, getting Lenyn Sosa, Dominic Fletcher, and Tommy Pham on consecutive swinging strikeouts. Through two innings, Peralta was laboring a bit, but he was up to 15 whiffs already.

The Brewers put together a two-out rally that flipped the score in the bottom of the second inning. After Nastrini retired Willy Adames and Sal Frelick, Milwaukee got their first hit on a Joey Ortiz single, and they were able to capitalize when Jake Bauers followed with an RBI double into the right field corner which easily scored Ortiz from first base. Gary Sánchez was then hit by a pitch, and with two on, Jackson Chourio smashed a hanging slider into the left field seats for a three-run shot to make it 4-2.

Now pitching with a two-run lead, Peralta looked to overcome his shaky start and put together a quality outing. He retired the side in order, and after the early trouble, Peralta had retired seven in a row. But DeJong led off the fourth and Peralta again struggled to put him away, and after three foul balls on a 1-2 count, DeJong homered to right. Peralta recovered to quickly get the next three hitters, and the Brewers took a 4-3 lead to the bottom of the fourth.

Milwaukee’s offense had quieted since the second inning. In the fourth, Bauers walked with one out and, after a Sánchez fly ball to the warning track, stole second to get into scoring position, but Chourio grounded out and Nastrini was through four innings.

Though he was already up to 89 pitches, Peralta was back out there for the fifth inning, and he needed only eight pitches to get through the fifth with three groundouts. Despite that near-disaster in the first inning, Peralta finished with five innings, three earned runs allowed on four hits and a walk, he struck out seven, and he was in line to be the game’s winning pitcher.

Nastrini was replaced in the fifth by Tanner Banks, who had no problem getting through the top of the Brewers’ order. Kevin Herget was the first Brewer out of the bullpen this afternoon, and he looked great in the fifth, striking out Julks, Sheets, and DeJong in order.

In the bottom of the sixth, Banks continued for Chicago, and Ortiz got a nearly identical two-out single to the one that sparked the second-inning rally for the Brewers' first hit since Chourio’s homer. There would be no rally this time, though, as Ortiz was thrown out trying to steal second.

Herget’s excellent outing continued in the top of the seventh. He struck out two more batters (five straight!) and then got Sosa to line out to second base to end the inning. Six up, six down with five strikeouts for Herget today, in a one-run game.

Banks got one more out in the bottom of the seventh and was replaced by Justin Anderson, who struck out Sánchez but allowed an infield single to Chourio and an outfield single to Turang. Contreras worked a long at-bat and very nearly hit a three-run homer, but he was robbed by Dominic Fletcher, who made an incredible catch, leaping above the wall while simultaneously crashing into it. Fletcher’s fabulous play kept the White Sox within striking distance.

Herget stayed in to start the eighth, but he’d pushed himself a little too far: he walked the first two batters and got yanked for Enoli Paredes by a suddenly vulnerable-feeling Pat Murphy. Paredes’s first pitch got away from Contreras, but not as far away as pinch runner Zach Remillard thought, and Contreras threw him out at third base.

That would prove to be a costly out. Nicky Lopez gapped one that surely would have scored Tommy Pham from first (and obviously would have scored Remillard from second or third), but it bounced over the wall and Pham had to stop at third. Julks was next, and he hit a fly ball to medium left field—not deep enough, it turned out, as Yelich threw a strike to home plate and doubled off Pham (who wasn’t pleased) to preserve the lead and electrify Am Fam Field. The Brewers wriggled out of a major jam having miraculously not allowed a run.

With the momentum firmly on their side, the Brewers looked primed for the knockout punch in the bottom of the eighth against new pitcher Tim Hill. Yelich and Adames led off the inning with back-to-back singles, putting runners at the corners and nobody out. But the Brewers made a rally-killing call and tried a safety squeeze which did not come close to working, as Yelich was an easy out at home.

After the failed squeeze, John Brebbia replaced Hill, and Ortiz had another good at-bat and drew a walk. That brought up Bauers with the bases loaded, but he struck out looking on what was really a nice sequence from Brebbia. But Gary Sánchez came through in a very non-Gary-Sánchez way; he blooped a little single into center field that scored Adames and Frelick, giving the Brewers some breathing room.

Milwaukee stuck with Paredes in the ninth. He got Sheets on a line drive, then hit DeJong, induced a pop out from Lee, and got Colás to ground out to end the game and complete the sweep. It was Paredes’s first career save as a big leaguer.

Given Peralta’s struggles early, he and the Brewer bullpen did a remarkable job getting through this one. With a “TBD” listed as tomorrow’s starting pitcher in game one of a big series against the Nationa League-leading Philadelphia Phillies, Murphy looked determined to preserve his best bullpen arms for tomorrow. A solid recovery from Peralta and good outings from Herget and Paredes enabled him to do so.

Offensive standouts for the Brewers included Ortiz (2-for-3, a walk, a run scored), Bauers (1-for-3, a double, a walk, an RBI, a run scored, a stolen base), Sánchez (1-for-3, a HBP, a run scored, two RBI), and Chourio (2-for-4 with that three-run homer).

The sweep sets up a showdown between the top two NL teams east of the Mississippi, as the Brewers (36-23) will travel to Philadelphia tonight and start a three-game series with the Phillies (41-18, pending tonight’s result) tomorrow.