Brewers hold off Braves to win series
It didn’t come easily, but the Milwaukee Brewers are on a winning streak.
Christian Yelich and Manny Piña each homered off Dallas Keuchel and Chase Anderson turned in one of his best starts of the season, then they had to withstand a nail-biter of a ninth inning with Josh Hader on the mound in a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on a toasty Wednesday afternoon at Miller Park.
It’s the first time the Brewers have won consecutive games since winning three straight June 29-July 1, and the first time they’ve won a series from a team other than the Pittsburgh Pirates since May 13-16.
“They’re definitely a really good team, one of the better teams in the National League. It was a good series for us,” Yelich said. “We finally started playing the way that we’re capable of offensively, defensively, pitching, and we’re going to need to continue to do that.”
The ninth started innocently enough against Hader, with broken-bat singles from Charlie Culberson and Johan Camargo.
Hader recovered by getting Ronald Acuña, Jr. to foul out and Dansby Swanson to fly out to the warning track in center, bringing up the dangerous Freddie Freeman.
Freeman struck out, but the ball skipped away from Piña and his throw down to first was over the head of Jesús Aguilar. That loaded the bases for Josh Donaldson, who’d homered in his previous at-bat.
On cue, he rolled a two-RBI single to center to pull Atlanta to within 5-4.
But Hader buckled down from there, striking Ozzie Albies out on three pitches to lock down his 21st save and send Milwaukee out on a brief four-game trip to Arizona on a positive note.
“It was a little bit of a strange outing,” said manager Craig Counsell. “The first two hitters get broken-bat hits. He made good pitches to Freeman, he made good pitches to Albies.
“They put a nice comeback on him and had some good at-bats against him, but he finished it.”
The left-hander Keuchel entered the day 3-2 with a 3.09 earned run average in five starts but with an 0-3 record and 9.50 ERA in four starts against the Brewers.
Aguilar opened the bottom of the second by reaching on a Donaldson error, and one batter later Piña drove his fifth homer of the season out to left.
Anderson allowed only a second-inning Brian McCann double and a pair of walks. He departed after walking Freeman with two outs in the sixth, leaving him just shy of recording his second quality start of 2019.
Anderson (5-2) threw 94 pitches over his 52⁄3-inning stint, his longest since June 9.
The Brewers hit for the collective reverse cycle in the bottom of the frame, with Yelich avenging two prior strikeouts against Keuchel by sending a 431foot blast out to left-center to start things off.
The homer was the 34th of the season for Yelich, tying him with Cody Bellinger for the major-league lead. It leaves him just two shy of his total for 2018, with more than two months to go in the season.
Ryan Braun followed with a triple into the right-field corner, and then Keston Hiura continued his hot hitting in the series by doubling to center. Aguilar advanced Hiura with a groundout, and Piña capped the inning with a single to center that upped Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0.
Junior Guerra walked Freeman to open the eighth, and then Donaldson hit an up-and-in fastball out to left to pull Atlanta to within 5-2.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Grinding it: Mike Moustakas received a rare day of rest, with Tyler Saladino starting at third base in his place.
“Pre-all-star break, he went through the whole home stand and road trip, then this home stand,” Counsell said. “The all-star break was in there, but there are 26 games in a row around that and he’s played every day since a partial day off in San Diego.
“It’s been a pretty good streak for him.”
Nelson to begin rehabbing: Jimmy Nelson, on the injured list since June 28 with right-elbow soreness, will travel with the Brewers to Arizona and throw a bullpen session on Friday and then fly back to begin a minor-league rehab assignment at Class A Wisconsin on Sunday.
“One step at a time,” Counsell said. On a tear: Outfielder Trent Grisham continued his tear for Class AAA San Antonio on Tuesday, homering for the third straight game and recording his fourth consecutive multi-hit game as the Missions won their sixth straight.
In 22 games since being promoted from Class AA Biloxi, Grisham is hitting .314 with nine homers and 18 RBI while compiling an OPS of 1.043.
RECORD
This year: 50-47 Last year: 55-42
ATTENDANCE
Wednesday: 36,928
This year: 1,773,403 (34,773 avg.) Last year: 1,771,639 (34,738 avg.)
COMING UP
Thursday: Brewers at Diamondbacks, 8:40 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Zach Davies (7-2, 2.89) vs. Arizona RHP Merrill Kelly (7-9, 3.93). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.