After a late scratch due to “back soreness” for Christian Yelich, the Milwaukee Brewers managed to even up the series against the Philadelphia Phillies in large part due to an offensive explosion in the first inning. The lead carried them through the rest of the game while Jose Quintana and the bullpen limited a dangerous Phillies offense for much of the night.
Before the Phillies could retire a single batter in the first inning, the Brewers jumped to a 5-0 lead against starter Aaron Nola. The leadoff hitter, Brice Turang, worked a walk, representing much of what would follow for the Philadelphia starter. Nola struggled with his command for much of the night, but it was particularly rough in the first inning.
After Turang’s walk, Nola hit Jackson Chourio on the hand. At first, it seemed like a dangerous play, but the pitch fortunately hit off Chourio’s hand guard. William Contreras singled to load the bases.
Sal Frelick brought home the first two runs on an awkward play. He blooped a ball into shallow center field, but there was confusion for the baserunners as they had to await a potential catch from Harrison Bader. Once the ball dropped, Chourio had to scramble for third base. He would have been out, but third baseman Alec Bohm missed the ball. In a risky move, Chourio took the opportunity to run for home, barely making it ahead of the tag to secure an early 2-0 lead.
That lead expanded when the next batter, Isaac Collins, connected for a three-run homer. Once again, it was a mistake from Nola, who hung a changeup in the lower half of the zone. It was Collins’ ninth homer of the year as he now boasts an .804 OPS this season.
The Brewers scored their sixth run of the night in the fourth inning, courtesy of a double from Turang, the reigning NL Player of the Month. Earlier in the game, he recorded a triple, but he was stranded when the following two batters struck out. Turang finished 2-for-3 with a walk, continuing his excellent performance of late.
Quintana took advantage of the early lead, firing four scoreless innings to start his outing. In the first inning, things could have spiraled if not for a fortunate break from a Phillies baserunning error. J. T. Realmuto had singled on a deflection from Anthony Seigler, pushing the lead runner to third base, but he took an aggressive turn around first base. Seigler made the heads-up throw to catch Realmuto and make up for the close defensive miss earlier on the play.
Quintana walked a pair of batters in the third inning, but struck out Bryce Harper to end the inning. In the fourth, it was a double play that helped him escape trouble. The Phillies tacked on a run in the fifth on a trio of singles, but overall, the Phillies still couldn’t manage to find the breakthrough hit.
It wasn’t until the seventh inning that Quintana started to seriously struggle. He hung a curveball to the leadoff batter, Nick Castellanos, for a single. It was another mistake on the curveball that Quintana surrendered a two-run home run to Weston Wilson, giving the Phillies a fighting chance with a 6-3 scoreline. That home run was enough for Milwaukee to call on the bullpen. On the whole, Quintana finished with a line of 6 1/3 innings pitched, three earned runs, seven hits, six strikeouts, and three walks.
The bullpen played a pivotal role in stifling the Phillies’ comeback. Aaron Ashby was summoned to finish the seventh inning. Initially, he ran into trouble against the top of the lineup. He gave up a single to Trea Turner and walked Kyle Schwarber after a hard-fought, seven-pitch at-bat. Ashby then forced a groundout, which looked like it might end the inning with a double play, but Brice Turang couldn’t cleanly get the ball out of his glove. He was able to record the out at second base, but the Phillies had the tying run at the plate with runners at the corners and two outs. Ashby bounced back by striking out Realmuto on a changeup in the dirt.
Abner Uribe found his own way out of a tricky spot in the eighth. After Bader singled, Uribe fought through an eight-pitch at-bat and earned a double play to release any tension in the growing Phillies threat. It was a solid return to form for Uribe after surrendering two runs in his outing against Philadelphia back on Monday. Jared Koenig took the ninth to earn his first save of the season. He hit Wilson on the foot with a curveball, but otherwise worked a clean inning.
It was another solid game from Milwaukee. It wasn’t their cleanest, but they made better use of their opponent’s mistakes than Philly made of theirs. With the series tied, tomorrow’s finale offers another chance to build their advantage in the NL standings.
Tomorrow’s game is slated for a 3:10 p.m. first pitch with Freddy Peralta starting against Ranger Suarez.
UPDATE: After the game, Todd Rosiak reported that Pat Murphy told the media that Yelich has been dealing with back pain since the Arizona series last week. He’s expected to get the day off again tomorrow as the Brewers will aim to have him back for the weekend series in Pittsburgh beginning on Friday.
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