Peralta rescues overworked bullpen
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
With another short outing from the starting pitcher and an overworked bullpen, Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell found a new closer Wednesday afternoon.
Asked to convert a save for the first time in the majors, young right-hander Freddy Peralta recorded the final three outs of the Brewers' 5-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Miller Park, averting a three-game sweep with a badly needed triumph.
Peralta took over after Josh Hader, who usually closes games, entered an inning earlier than usual and covered the seventh and eighth, recording five strikeouts. Peralta struck out the first two hitters he faced before retiring the dangerous Joey Votto on a fly to left field.
For the second time in four days, a Brewers starting pitcher exited with an injury. Jhoulys Chacín, whose season already was miserable in terms of results, departed with what was described as right ribcage discomfort but later diagnosed as a right oblique strain.
Counsell said after the game that Chacín likely was headed to the injury list, as was the case with Brandon Woodruff after he suffered a left oblique strain Sunday in Arizona. Now down two starters, the Brewers will have to scramble to piece together a starting rotation.
Before exiting, Chacín turned in another disappointing performance, leaving him winless since April 30 with a 5.79 earned run average. It started with a two-run first inning, with Josh VanMeter singling in the first run with two down and Scooter Gennett following with an RBI double.
Ryan Braun got those two runs back with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the inning. After Yasmani Grandal drew a two-out walk, Braun sent a drive out to right-center on a 3-2 fastball from Lucas Sims for his 15th home run of the season.
Chacín struck out the first two hitters in the second inning but Phillip Ervin singled and moved up when Braun muffed the ball, setting the stage for Joey Votto's run-scoring single to right that put the Reds back on top, 3-2.
VanMeter, filling in for Brewers killer Eugenio Suárez, led off the Reds third inning with a booming homer into the second deck in right, a 463-foot blast that made it 4-2. Chacín appeared to stumble coming out of the batter's box when grounding out to open the bottom of that inning, and did not come out for the fourth.
It stayed 4-2 until the fifth inning, when Keston Hiura extended his hitting streak to 13 games in a big way, blasting his 10th homer of the season off the batter's eye in center. Hiura reached 10 homers in 40 games in the majors, second in Brewers history only to Braun, who did it in 38 games as a rookie in 2007.
Arcia followed with a walk and was still on base when Lorenzo Cain singled to center with two down. Lefty Amir Garrett was summoned to face Christian Yelich, and after uncorking a wild pitch to move up the runners, walked Yelich to load them.
Grandal grounded a single through the left side to send home Arcia and Cain, putting the Brewers on top, 5-4. failing to make a sliding catch of VanMeter's double in the fifth inning, Cain remained on the ground, unable to get up. It appeared Cain might have some kind of lower body injury but after being attended to, it turned out to be a leg cramp and he shook it off and stayed in the game, though moving a bit gingerly afterward.
Hiura moves up list: Hiura's 13-game hitting streak tied Nori Aoki (2012) for the sixth-longest by a rookie in club history. Pat Listach set the team's rookie record with a 17-game streak in 1992, followed by Aoki (2012) and Paul Molitor (1978) with 15-gamers, and Scott Podsednik (2003) and Dale Sveum (1986) with 14-gamers.
Suarez takes a seat: Suárez, the Reds hitter who has tormented the Brewers the most, was not in the starting lineup for the series finale. Suárez hit three two-run homers in the first two games, boosting his total to eight homers with 17 RBI against the Brewers. Counsell notes that Suárez hit a pretty good pitch from Zach Davies the other way for a homer in the first inning Tuesday night but otherwise was getting too many mistakes to hit: “If you make mistakes to good hitters, they're going to get good hits. I don't see it as a game planning thing. It's execution. Have we made more mistakes to Suarez? Absolutely. We've made too many mistakes. You've got to be better with those guys.”
Reds lose two players: The Reds lost two of their starting players before the third inning was done. After leading off the game with a single, centerfielder Nick Senzel was attended to and left the game. Senzel has been plagued my migraines and bouts of vertigo in the past. In the third inning, catcher Juan Graterol took a foul tip off his mask and was unable to shake it off, also leaving the game. He was replaced by Ryan Lavarnway.
RECORD
This year: 54-50 Last year: 58-46
ATTENDANCE
Wednesday: 39,682
This year: 1,872,832 (34,682 avg.) Last year: 1,869,264 (34,616 avg.)
COMING UP
Thursday: Off day.
Friday: Cubs at Brewers, 7:10 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Gio Gonzalez (2-1, 3.60) vs. Chicago LHP José Quintana (8-7, 4.42). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.