Offense saves the day after rocky start
Every time the New York Mets scored Saturday afternoon, the Milwaukee Brewers had an answer.
Those answers never stopped, growing louder and louder until they became deafening. Before the day was done, nine different Brewers both scored and drove in runs, a club record.
On a day when their starting pitcher never got on track and was gone in the fourth inning, the offense did the heavy lifting - and plenty of it - as the Brewers pulled away to a 17-6 romp over the Mets at Miller Park.
In moving 13 games over .500 (33-20) for the first time this season, the Brewers established season highs in both hits (19) and runs. It was their highest-offensive output since scoring 18 runs on Aug. 2, 2010, against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich, who fell a home run short of the cycle, and Jesus Aguilar led the way with three hits apiece. Cain and Yelich scored three runs each, and Yelich and Aguilar both knocked in three runs.
Brewers starter Chase Anderson guaranteed he would not go deep in the game by throwing a whopping 46 pitches in the first inning, with the Mets scoring three runs. Wilmer Flores and Devin Mesoraco delivered RBI singles and Anderson also issued a bases-loaded walk to No. 8 hitter Jose Reyes, who was batting .143 with a .200 on-base percentage.
The Brewers answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning off lefty Jason Vargas. Travis Shaw continued his recent RBI binge with a run-scoring double and Hernán Pérez lashed a tworun double into the left-field corner to knot the score.
Anderson then encountered what has become a frequent issue this season – the home-run ball. Nimmo led off the second with a blast to right and Michael Conforto did likewise to open the third. The homers were Nos. 12 and 13 off Anderson, just one fewer than he surrendered in 25 starts last season.
Again, the Brewers countered to draw even in the third. With one down, Aguilar hit a monstrous home run off the bottom of the scoreboard in center. Shaw followed with a double to right, his 27th extra-base hit of the season, and later scored on a single to center by Tyler Saladino, making it a 5-5 game.
Vargas departed after three innings but the Brewers’ offense kept going against reliever Jacob Rhame in the fourth. With one down, Cain walked and scored on Yelich’s triple into the rightfield corner. The Mets played their infield in but Ryan Braun foiled it by bouncing an RBI single up the middle to put the Brewers on top, 7-5.
The Mets chipped a run off the lead on Reyes’ RBI double in the fifth, but the Brewers continued to answer, scoring three times in the bottom of the inning. Catcher Erik Kratz, making his debut with the club, homered with two down off A.J. Ramos, and Yelich later lashed a two-run double to put the Brewers ahead, 10-6.
The Brewers completely blew open the game with seven runs in the seventh.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
FILLING A NEED: The Brewers still have hopes of developing pitching prospect Adrian Houser as a starter and have used him in that role at Class AA Biloxi, where he has gone 0-1 with a 4.73 ERA in eight outings, with 30 strikeouts in 262⁄3 innings. But, for the second time this season, he was summoned to fill what has been a fluid spot in the bullpen, and covered the last two innings.
CONTINUING HIGH-WIRE ACT: The 4-3, 10-inning victory over the Mets on Friday night boosted the Brewers’ record to 13-5 in one-run games this season, trailing only Seattle’s 14 wins in such outcomes.
JEFFRESS STREAK CONTINUES: Reliever Jeremy Jeffress continued to be an escape artist Friday night, bailing closer Corey Knebel out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam, then pitching a scoreless 10th to pick up the victory. Jeffress has not allowed a run in 22 consecutive appearances and has pitched scoreless ball in 25 of 26 games overall.
AGE IS ONLY A NUMBER: Despite being on the club just one day, Kratz made his first start for the Brewers. At 37 years, 345 days, he was the oldest player to appear for the Brewers since Counsell’s final game on Sept. 28, 2011, when he was 41 years, 38 days old. Kratz was the oldest catcher to play for the Brewers since Gregg Zaun (39 years, 36 days) on May 20, 2010, at Pittsburgh. The oldest catcher in club history was Rick Dempsey at 42 years, 22 days when he started on Oct. 5, 1991, at Boston.
DANGERS OF VIDEO GAMES: The pre-game discussion turned to the growing number of players who are using their spare time to play the popular video game Fortnite. As for the possibility of players developing physical problems, such as Boston’s David Price’s carpal tunnel syndrome, Counsell said, “I’d say that’s past the limit of things I can control. I’ve chosen for that not to be one of the things I worry about.”