Brewers hold on to beat As 5-3 in series opener

Box Score

The Brewers and Athletics opened their three-game series tonight with a relatively low-scoring affair that made Brewer fans nervous as it began to resemble their disastrous loss last weekend in Phoenix. Starters Freddy Peralta and J.T. Ginn weren’t perfect but they kept the score down before the Brewers got to the As bullpen in the seventh to give themselves some breathing room. It was also a memorable major-league debut for third baseman Caleb Durbin, acquired from the Yankees in the Devin Williams trade in the offseason, as he picked up a hit in his first at-bat and was the center of attention all night.

Both teams got two-out baserunners in the first inning, the As on a single by Tyler Soderstrom and the Brewers on a Christian Yelich walk. But neither team made anything out of it, though a great diving play by Gio Urshela (and a throw from has backside) was required to retire William Contreras to end the bottom of the first. The Athletics got another two-out single in the second, this one from Miguel Andujar, but that was it, and Ginn went three-up-three-down in the bottom of the inning to keep things moving along.

Lawrence Butler hit a solid single through the right side of the infield with one out in the top of the third, and Brent Rooker followed with a walk, and Peralta was facing his first real jam as Soderstrom, the league’s leader in homers, stepped to the plate. Soderstrom got ahead 2-0 and got a good pitch to hit, but he just missed it and flew out to right, and Shea Langeliers popped out to shallow center, and Peralta was through the three scoreless, though one of his old demons was rearing its head: he was already up to 60 pitches.

Garrett Mitchell led off the bottom of the third and should have walked, but he struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch that was pretty clearly off the plate inside but was called a strike anyway. That brought up Durbin for his first career at-bat, and he very nearly had a serious moment to remember when he turned on a fastball up and in, but it went just foul down the left-field line (it’d have been a double off the wall, not quite a homer). Instead, he made a slightly less dramatic moment to remember, as he hit a weak grounder down the third base line and utilized his speed to beat it out for an infield single. Durbin’s career batting average: 1.000.

Brice Turang almost followed with another single up the middle, but As second baseman Jacob Wilson (son of former NL Central mainstay Jack) made a nice diving play to rob Turang of a hit and retire Durbin at second. Turang’s speed gave Chourio a shot with two outs, and Chourio fell behind early but had a couple nice takes on 0-2 and then got a meaty mistake on 2-2 and he lined it over the head of Andujar in left field for a double which scored Turang from first. Milwaukee wasn’t done, though, as Yelich followed with an RBI single to left. A Contreras strikeout ended the inning, but the Brewers’ little two-out rally gave them a 2-0 lead after three.

Peralta came out for the fourth looking for one of those “shutdown” innings, but also looking for some efficiency. He didn’t quite get the easy inning he was hoping for, as Wilson and Andujar hit back-to-back one-out singles, but Urshela hit into a double play and Peralta had another zero. Ginn followed with another quick inning of his own.

Peralta got through another semi-chaotic but scoreless inning in the fifth. Max Muncy (no, the other one) led off with a single into left that dumped just in front of Chourio. Durbin then continued his feel-good debut by snagging the first out over the railing of the Athletics’ dugout on a pop-up from Butler, and Peralta struck out Rooker looking for the second out. But Soderstrom reached when a ground ball up the middle (that Joey Ortiz was in perfect position for) bounced off of Peralta, and Langeliers made loud contact on the first pitch he saw but he hit it too close to Sal Frelick, who made the catch for the third out.

Turang reached on an infield single with two out in the bottom of the fifth, giving Chourio another two-out chance. Chourio again fell behind (and swung at a few wild pitches in the process), but he again worked back into the count, ended up getting ahead 3-2 (with Turang stealing second in the process), and then he drew a walk (not that we’ve been looking for it) to put two on for Yelich. As manager Mark Kotsay didn’t want to risk having Ginn pitch to Yelich and went to his bullpen for lefty Jacob Lopez, who was making his first appearance for Sacramento. Yelich fell behind 1-2, but he knocked a front-door slider through the right side of the infield to knock Turang in and extend the Brewers’ lead.

With Peralta at 93 pitches through five innings and a fresh bullpen, Pat Murphy made a move to start the sixth and brought in Nick Mears, who entered the game with 14-up-14-down so far this year. A perfect season was not to be, though, as Mears walked the leadoff hitter JJ Bleday. After Wilson flew out to right, Bleday advanced to second on a wild pitch, and Andujar reached on an infield single that got Bleday to third. Urshela then hit a grounder to Durbin that could have been a double play, but they just didn’t quite get Urshela for the second out, and Bleday scored to put the As on the board. Mears got out of it, though, when Muncy hit a relatively soft liner to Turang for the third out, and the Brewers took a 3-1 lead to the bottom of the sixth.

With Frelick and Jake Bauers due up, Lopez continued for the As in the bottom of the sixth. But Frelick won the matchup and hit a leadoff double into the right field corner, and Murphy went to his bench and used Rhys Hoskins in Bauers’ place. Kotsay did not counter that move, but got away with it when Hoskins got under a changeup that was left up and over the middle of the zone. Ortiz then flew out to right and Mitchell struck out, and the Brewers were unfortunately incapable of capitalizing on the leadoff extra-base hit.

It was Abner Uribe in the seventh against the top of the Athletics’ order. He started with a backwards K of Butler, but Rooker hit a line drive just past the outstretched glove of a diving Ortiz for a one-out single. But Uribe recovered to get flyouts from Soderstrom and Langeliers and the inning ended.

Lopez kept going in the bottom of the seventh (he’d been starting games in Triple A), but the Brewers got the first two batters on by taking advantage of questionable defense. Durbin led off with a pop fly into no-man’s land in shallow left, but the left fielder Andujar really should have made the catch; instead, it popped out of his glove and Durbin was given a generous single. Turang then followed with a bunt, but Lopez mishandled it as he tried to make the throw to first, and both runners were safe. That forced Kotsay’s hand, and he made a move to right-hander Justin Sterner, who came in without having allowed an earned run in 9 1⁄3 innings this season.

But the Brewers were in good position, with the heart of their order coming up and a runner in scoring position with no outs for the second straight inning. The Brewers took advantage of a defensive miscue again; Chourio flew out to right, but the throw back to the infield was offline, which allowed Durbin to advance to third with one out. That gave Yelich another RBI opportunity (he was already 2-for-2 with two singles, a walk, and two RBI); he smoked a ball right to second base, but the Brewers were fortunate: it would have been an easy double play, but it came on a 3-2 pitch, so Turang was running on the pitch and the As could only get the out at first. That scored Durbin from third, and then with two outs, Contreras dumped a single into center field to score Turang as well. Contreras moved into scoring position with a steal of second and Frelick walked, but Hoskins grounded out and the inning ended. But Milwaukee had done their job and extended their lead to 5-1.

Grant Anderson came in for the eighth and had a quick, easy 1-2-3 inning, the first of the day for the Brewer pitching staff and the fifth straight appearance without an earned run for Anderson. José Leclerc pitched the bottom of the eighth against the bottom of Milwaukee’s order, and got them in order, though Durbin made solid contact but flew out to deep center.

With the four-run cushion, the Brewers sent Bryan Hudson to the hill to try to finish this one off. He got the first batter, Urshela, to ground out, but he walked Muncy and Butler with one out, and Rooker lined a double into the left field gap that scored Muncy. For the second time in a week, the Brewer bullpen failed miserably when inserting a non-closer with a four-run lead in the ninth inning, and Murphy again needed to go to Trevor Megill, hoping for better results than he got against the Diamondbacks on Saturday.

Megill came into a dangerous situation. He maintained a three-run advantage, but the As had two runners in scoring position and would have to face Soderstrom, who I will remind you is the league’s leading home run hitter this season. Soderstrom jumped on Megill’s first pitch and hit it pretty well, but it stayed in the ballpark for Chourio. Butler scored on the play, but the Brewers were no doubt happy to take the second out in exchange. Megill then struck out Langeliers on a curveball that bounced, and Contreras made the throw to first to secure the final out, and the Brewers were able to avoid a repeat of the Phoenix Disaster.

The Milwaukee offense wasn’t bad today, as they picked up eight hits and three walks on their way to five runs. They were led by Yelich, who reached three times and knocked in runs in three separate at-bats, and Durbin, who had the first two hits of his career; no one will remember that they were both cheapies. Chourio’s two-out RBI double was the biggest hit of the day, and Frelick added the team’s other extra-base hit with his double.

Peralta didn’t have his best stuff today, but he managed to keep the As off the board. It was sort of what you might think of as a classic Freddy start: he was inefficient and sometimes struggled to finish off hitters, but he got a pretty decent result with five scoreless innings. He allowed at least one baserunner in each of those innings and gave up seven hits, but walked only one. He struck out five.

The bullpen had mixed results. Mears had his first shaky outing of the season but limited the damage to one run, and Hudson struggled in the ninth. But Uribe and Anderson both turned in scoreless outings, and Megill looked sharp as he earned his second save.

The series continues tomorrow at 6:10 p.m. when Chad Patrick takes the mound against the Athletics’ marquee free agent signing, Luis Severino.