Dodgers defeat Brewers 5-3 on two late homers

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers today, 5-3. It was a strange game, one in which it felt like the Brewers should be getting blown out, but they found themselves in a tie game after a dramatic eighth-inning homer from Christian Yelich. But in a replay of last night, the Brewers’ struggling bullpen was unable to keep them in the game, capping a frustrating day for the Brewers’ pitching staff and starter Freddy Peralta.

The Brewers came out looking to get a jump on Dodgers starter James Paxton, who has had some success this season but had his worst start of the year his last time out. Jackson Chourio, hitting leadoff for the first time since May 3, struck out to start the game and was followed by William Contreras, who walked on four pitches. Contreras advanced to second on a groundout by Christian Yelich, and Willy Adames knocked a two-out single into left field to give the Brewers an early 1-0 lead.

Peralta, who has had his struggles over the years with first-inning runs, walked Shohei Ohtani to start the game and followed that by giving up a two-run homer to Dodgers catcher Will Smith, the same Will Smith who hit three home runs last night. That was followed by a Freddie Freeman single to left and a Teoscar Hernández single up the middle, and things were beginning to look dire for Peralta, who was just catching too much of the plate with his pitches.

After a visit from Chris Hook, Peralta settled down: he got his first out when Andy Pages grounded into an RBI fielder’s choice that made it 3-1, he struck out James Outman on three pitches, and he gave up a hard line drive to Miguel Rojas but Andruw Monasterio made a nice play at third and the inning was over.

Rhys Hoskins started the second by hitting one deep to left, but Hernández made a nice catch jumping into the wall; play was paused for a moment when Hernández appeared to injure his wrist on the play, but he stayed in the game. Paxton got Blake Perkins to pop out and Monasterio to ground out, and Paxton had the shutdown inning that Peralta couldn’t provide.

Peralta got the first two batters of the second inning but got a little too literal with the “backfoot slider” concept and hit Ohtani with a 1-2 pitch, bringing up Smith, who at this point was 4-for-4 with four home runs and two walks in the series. Ohtani stole second base, and Smith nearly hit his fifth homer in two days, but it died on the warning track in center field and Peralta had a zero in the second inning.

Contreras crushed a two-out double at 118.1 mph down the left field line in the top of the third, a hit that was notable in that it was the hardest-hit ball on the Statcast record (back to 2015) in Brewers franchise history. Yelich followed by hitting a groundball 109 mph up the middle but the Dodgers had him positioned well and made the play for the third out.

Peralta, who had 45 pitches through two innings, started the third by walking Freeman in an eight-pitch at-bat. He got a quick strikeout of Hernández and got ahead of Pages 0-2, but Pages worked it back to a full count before popping out on the seventh pitch. Peralta got Outman on the next pitch, but he’d still thrown 65 pitches through just three innings.

With two outs in the fourth, Hoskins got a 3-2 fastball that he could handle and hit it out to left for his second homer in as many days, and that cut the Dodgers’ lead to one.

Peralta’s inefficiency continued in the fourth. He gave up a leadoff single to Rojas, but he didn’t get any help from his defense when Gavin Lux hit what could have been a double play, and Monasterio inexplicably dove in front of Adames, which confused Adames enough that he wasn’t able to get either runner out. (Adames was charged with an error, one of the more tough-luck errors I’ve ever seen: it was absolutely Monasterio’s fault.) Chris Taylor did the Brewers a favor by twice failing to get a bunt down and then striking out, but Peralta walked Ohtani to load the bases with one out for Smith.

In what was a familiar sight today, Peralta got ahead of Smith 1-2 but just could not put him away; Smith fouled off six pitches with two strikes. Peralta finally struck him out with a 98-mph fastball on the eleventh pitch of the at-bat, but he was up to 97 pitches, 32 in the inning, the bases were still loaded, and Freeman, a career .366 hitter with the bases loaded, was up. Peralta got ahead again, Contreras made a great pick on a ball in the dirt on an 0-2 slider, and Freeman worked his way back into the count and fouled off a few pitches, but Peralta got him to ground out to second and the inning was over miraculously with no runs across.

Peralta was done after four of the least efficient innings you’ll ever see. He managed to put zeroes on the board in all but the first, but he was completely unable to finish hitters off, and it led to an astronomical pitch count, 104 pitches in just four innings. He had good velocity today and was able to crank it up to 99.1 mph, the fastest pitch of his career, but his command just wasn’t consistently there and he wasn’t hitting the spots he wanted to, especially with his off-speed pitches. He finished with three runs allowed on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts in his four innings of work.

Despite all of that, Milwaukee was still very much in this game, down just a run against a pitcher they could certainly get. The Brewers tried to put together a two-out rally in the fifth when Chourio extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single and Contreras drew his second walk of the game, but Yelich flew out to center field and the threat passed.

Peralta was replaced in the bottom of the fifth by Bryse Wilson, whose time moonlighting as a starting pitcher was up with the acquisition of Aaron Civale earlier this week. Wilson gave up a two-out single to Outman but had no problem putting up a zero.

Paxton was done after five, replaced in the top of the sixth by Daniel Hudson, who came in with a 1.77 ERA and a 9.75 K:BB ratio. He struck out Adames and got Frelick to pop out on the first pitch, then issued a rare walk to Hoskins, but Perkins flew out to center and the Brewers remained behind 3-2.

Wilson worked around a two-out Ohtani triple in the bottom of the inning, aided by nice catches in the outfield by Perkins and Yelich. Blake Treinen replaced Hudson in the top of the seventh and carved up the Brewers, easily retiring Monasterio, Turang, and Chourio. In the bottom of the seventh, Monasterio’s rough defensive night continued, as a high throw pulled Hoskins off of first base and allowed Hernández to reach. Wilson gave up a two-out hit to Outman that put runners on the corners, but he got Rojas on a ground ball and the inning was over.

As noted by Curt Hogg, the Dodgers bullpen had faced the minimum in five innings against the Brewers in this series, and if Milwaukee was going to come back in this one, they’d have to do it against the top arms in the Dodger bullpen, Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips. In a bit of a surprise, the usual closer Phillips—not Vesia—entered in the eighth to face Contreras, Yelich, and Adames. Phillips struck out Adames, but with one out—and just after a bad strike-two call—Yelich smoked one 429 feet out to center field for his 10th home run of the year. Despite the fact that it felt like the Dodgers were demolishing the Brewers in this game, the score was tied. Phillips retired Adames and Frelick to end the inning, but Milwaukee was back in it.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers struck back immediately. Bryan Hudson, who has been so good all season but had a rare rough night last night, gave up a fly ball to Miguel Vargas on the first pitch that just kept moving; it looked like Yelich had settled under it on the left field warning track, but as he reached up to make the catch, he just ran into the wall, and the ball landed on top of it and bounced out. It was deflating. Two batters later, Ohtani was less subtle: he smashed his National League-leading 28th homer to right, a monstrous 430-foot shot. That was all for Hudson, who was replaced by Rob Zastryzny, who struck out Smith, walked Freeman, and retired Hernández on a flyout to end the inning.

It was indeed Vesia in the top of the ninth, and the Brewers went down meekly: Hoskins struck out, Perkins popped into foul territory, and Monasterio flew out to shallow left. The game was over: the Dodgers won, 5-3.

The Brewer's offense struggled in this one: they had only five hits, and no player had more than one. Hoskins had the best batting line, as he was 1-for-3 with a walk and a solo home run. Yelich also had a solo home run, his only hit in four chances. Contreras continued his good hitting on the road trip, as he was 1-for-2 with a double, a run scored, and two walks, Adames had an RBI single, and Chourio had a hit to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. On the mound, Wilson did a nice job in relief today, scattering three hits across three scoreless innings with a strikeout and no walks.

Milwaukee has had chances to win each of the first two games of this series, but they just haven’t been able to keep the Dodger offense off the board when they needed to. In truth, it felt fluky that the Brewers were even in this game late, as Peralta was dancing in and out of trouble through the entirety of his three innings and it could have been far worse for him. But they haven’t been able to get it done, and Milwaukee will try to avoid a sweep tomorrow afternoon at 3:10 p.m. CT, with Dallas Keuchel on the mound against an unnamed Dodgers starter.