BREWERS GET 6-5 WIN IN DRAMATIC COMEBACK VICTORY
After Andruw Monasterio popped out against Royals closer James McArthur to record the second out of the ninth inning, the Brewers had no runners on, they were down by two, they were down to their last out, and they had a 1% win probability. Win probability be damned, they said, as they staged one of their more dramatic comeback wins in recent memory.
After a back-and-forth game in which Brewers starter Colin Rea started well but fell apart in the fifth and Kansas City Royals starter Seth Lugo got beat up early but cruised after that, Milwaukee looked like they might go quietly and take another disappointing loss.
The Brewers came into this game having lost three of their last four, with Colin Rea, one of their more reliable starters this season, on the mound. Kansas City countered with Seth Lugo, who has been fantastic, and entered the game with the third-best ERA in baseball among starting pitchers.
Milwaukee’s offense started out showing no fear of Lugo and his 1.60 ERA. In the top of the first, Tyler Black hit a two-out single and stole second and was followed by a Willy Adames walk, but Brice Turang flew out to center to end the inning. They were right back on Lugo in the second, though: Rhys Hoskins led off with a 423-foot home run to center on a sinker right down the middle on the second pitch of the at bat. Joey Ortiz followed, and after fouling off three straight 1-2 pitches, Lugo hung a breaking ball and Ortiz didn’t miss, hitting it into the stands in left center.
Lugo settled in after the back-to-back homers, as he retired the next nine straight until giving up a couple of singles in the fifth. On the other side, Colin Rea cruised through four pretty easy innings, allowing only a walk and two singles.
But the Royals broke through in the fifth. MJ Melendez led off the inning by hitting a hard line drive to right that Sal Frelick misjudged off the bat; it got over his head, and Melendez had a lead-off triple. The extra out would prove costly. Rea retired Nelson Velázquez, but gave up a solid single to Kyle Isbel with one out and Melendez scored. After Rea got Maikel Garcia to ground out, the Brewers almost got out of it when Ortiz nearly made a highlight-reel play on a Bobby Witt Jr. hard grounder down the third base line—keeping it in the infield momentarily saved a run, but Vinnie Pasquantino followed by putting a double into the gap that scored two runs to give Kansas City a 3-2 lead. Salvador Perez followed with another double to extend the lead, and that was it for Rea. Hoby Milner replaced him and struck out Michael Massey on three pitches to end the inning.
The Brewers pulled one back in the seventh with a little two-out rally. Blake Perkins reached on an infield single and advanced on a throwing error, which led the Royals to pull Seth Lugo even though he was at only 77 pitches. Lefty Angel Zerpa entered, and Andruw Monasterio, pinch hitting for Frelick, managed his first hit of the season, a ground ball through the hole on the right, that scored Perkins to make it 4-3. Contreras followed with a nearly identical single, but pinch hitter Gary Sánchez struck out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Witt’s speed changed the game for the second time. New pitcher Thyago Vieira was greeted by a single from Garcia. Witt grounded into what looked like a routine double play, but he was able to beat out the relay throw (despite a 109.6 mph exit velocity on the ground ball), and he promptly stole second base and scored on a Pasquantino single (that nearly decapitated Vieira). Vieira struck out Perez and was replaced by Jared Koenig, who gave up a hit to Massey but retired Hunter Renfoe to end the inning with the score holding at 5-3.
Adames led off the 8th with a line drive that looked destined for the corner (and had a .770 expected batting average, according to Statcast), but Garcia leapt in the air and snagged it. Turang followed with a single slapped into left, but Hoskins struck out looking on a close strike three. Jake Bauers, who entered the game after Monasterio pinch hit for Frelick, followed with a really good at bat; he fell behind 0-2 but kept battling and ended up singling on a 107.3 mph liner to right that Renfroe just missed making a sliding catch on. Murphy chose to pinch hit for Jackson Chourio and brought Oliver Dunn off the bench and he also worked a long at bat, but struck out on the ninth pitch of the sequence with the tying run on first.
A somewhat interesting note here, after Chourio was pinch hit for, was that the Brewers had substituted two of their four outfielders. This led to Andruw Monasterio moving to the outfield for the first time in his American professional career; he’d had one professional appearance in the outfield while playing for Caribes de Anzoategui in the Venezuelan Winter League in the 2022-23 season. Predictably, the ball found him, but Monasterio fielded a lazy fly ball down the line without any drama. Koenig, who had stayed in the game, allowed a two-out single to Isbel but he was thrown out trying to steal second.
With eyes on a late comeback, the Brewers looked like they might go down without much drama against Royals closer McArthur. But their MVP of this young season, William Contreras, wasn’t ready to be done just yet. He snuck a two-out double down the line, which was followed by a Sánchez walk, bringing Adames to the plate as the go-ahead run with two outs. After stealing strike one on a curveball that looked outside, McArthur threw another curveball that he left over the plate, and Adames did not miss, hitting it right into the glove of Trevor Megill in the Brewers’ bullpen.
Megill entered the game in the bottom of the inning to try to nail down the comeback win against the top of Kansas City’s order. He struck out Garcia on three pitches, got Witt to fly out to right, and got Pasquantino to ground ball to short, where Adames made a great play going back to his right. Eight pitches, eight strikes, three outs, game over.
It was an “all-hands-on-deck” win—I’d like to see the odds you would get on betting that the Brewers would ever field an outfield of Andruw Monasterio, Blake Perkins, and Jake Bauers. Every Brewer position player—literally every single one on the roster—had a hit except for Sánchez, who walked and scored the tying run, and Dunn, who was 0-for-1. Contreras and Turang both had two hits, and Hoskins and Ortiz had their back-to-back second-inning solo shots.
Hoby Milner was another bright spot tonight. He faced five batters, retired four, and struck out three of them. After a slow start, he is now unscored upon in six straight appearances and hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last ten innings. Rea was excellent for four innings but got beat up in the fifth; his final line was 4 2/3 innings, seven hits, four earned runs, a walk, and two strikeouts. Megill, who appears to have been handed the closer role, was dominant in the ninth.
It felt like a huge win for the Brewers, who looked like they were going to go meekly into the night and lose a fourth straight game for the first time since last July. Instead, they’ll have a chance to win the series tomorrow afternoon, when Joe Ross takes the mound against Brady Singer at 1:10 pm.
2024-05-08T03:08:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd