Williams deserves MVP honors from series win in San Diego
SAN DIEGO – The Milwaukee Brewers walked into Petco Park on Monday afternoon down key contributors Willy Adames, Freddy Peralta and Josh Hader while getting set to face the team with the third-best record in Major League Baseball. Moments into their first of three games against the San Diego Padres, they lost their hottest hitter, Hunter Renfroe, to a strained hamstring injury.
Had the Brewers struggled against a red-hot team, it would have been understandable.
Instead, by the time they packed up their bags and flew to St. Louis with a series victory Wednesday night, they did so with a series victory in tow.
The Brewers rode a strong Aaron Ashby start, some timely late hitting and a gutsy bullpen performance to a 2-1 win over the Padres to improve to 28-16, tied for the second-best record in the National League and third in all of baseball.
Pitching in the city where his uncle, Andy, pitched for eight seasons in the majors, Ashby kept the Brewers in the game with 5 2⁄3 innings.
The offense finally broke through against San Diego starter Yu Darvish in the seventh. Rowdy Tellez tied the game with a double and Tyrone Taylor followed one batter later with a go-ahead sacrifice fly. It was Taylor's second game-winning RBI in as many days.
The unit that got the most kudos in the clubhouse postgame, though, was the bullpen. Without Hader, they were tested with three tightly-contested games while in San Diego and responded with only one earned run allowed over 10 1⁄3 total innings.
In the series finale, Luis Perdomo, Brad Boxberger and Devin Williams combined for the final 10 outs with one Padres hitter reaching base.
“That's what the unit does. They pick each other up,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We're missing Josh but a lot of guys delivered some great stuff. Today, Luis Perdomo got four outs for us and did it really well. He went through the top of their order in the seventh, then Box had a real great inning and Devin, going three days in a row, closed it out with good pitches. He made some real good pitches.”
A second Ashby to excel in San Diego
Ashby's first start since replacing the injured Freddy Peralta in the rotation full-time has to be labeled as a success.
Command occasionally eluded him and a handful of missed locations led to Padres hits, but had it not been for Jace Peterson's error fielding a grounder in the fifth, Ashby would have had a scoreless day.
The lefty worked 5 2⁄3 innings while only allowing the one unearned run, striking out five while walking three and allowing four singles.
“This is the good Aaron Ashby,” Counsell said. We've seen this before. I thought he was in control.”
The start was Ashby's first since May 8 and fourth of the season. It was, all things considered, probably also his best.
The recently-turned 24-year-old had his slider and curveball working, generating a combined 17 swinging and called strikes out of 38 thrown. Five of his nine total whiffs on the day came via the slider and perhaps his most crucial pitch of the game, a full-count swinging strike to Eric Hosmer after falling behind 3-0 with two on and two outs in the third, was a curve.
“As much as anything, when you get behind 3-0, it's just not giving up or giving into what's going on,” Counsell said. “It's continuing to try to make pitches and realizing you can get back in the atbat quickly. He got in the at-bat and made a big pitch to get out of the inning."
Ashby, who entered with 13 walks in 13 2⁄3 innings across his three previous starts, lost his command briefly prior to the Hosmer punchout, then a leadoff walk of Austin Nola in the fifth came back to burn him.
Ashby still did well in that inning to limit the damage to just one after a bobble by Peterson on a Manny Machado grounder loaded the bases with one out. Jurickson Profar drove home a run with a weak grounder and Ashby retired Hosmer again in a big spot as Christian Yelich made a sliding catch in left.
“I felt good,” Ashby said. “I think Omar and I were on the same page for the majority of the day and we were keeping everything down in the zone, trying to get early contact. A lot of ground balls.
“Curveball felt good for sure, throwing it for strikes. And the slider when we needed it. Everything was working today.”
The cherry on top for Ashby was getting to pitch in front of his uncle, a 14year big-league veteran, as the Brewers picked up a win.
“This is where he spent a lot of time in his career, and a lot of successful time in his career,” Ashby said. “Being able to come back here and pitch is something I've looked forward to for a long time.”
Perdomo comes through
An under-the-radar minor-league signing last year as he recovered from Tommy John surgery, Perdomo had quietly been efficient in a variety of subtle roles since he was added to the active roster in early May.
On Wednesday, he was front and center in the bullpen's effort.
The right-hander relieved Ashby with two outs and a man on in the sixth and, in recording four outs, he did what he does best: induce ground balls.
Perdomo, facing his former team for the first time, got all four outs on the ground, working around a leadoff single in the seventh by retiring San Diego's top three hitters. Included in those outs was a flashy play by second baseman Kolten Wong, laying out to stop a grounder up the middle and executing a perfect flip with his glove to lead shortstop Luis Urias to second to get the force.
“Luis (Perdomo) is doing what we expected and that's keeping the ball on the ground,” Counsell said. “We got an incredible play in that inning. He's putting the ball on the ground and he gets outs and there's double plays there. He's doing what we expect him to do.”
In 8 1⁄3 innings this year, Perdomo has allowed just two runs. He has succeeded despite striking out just one batter, churning out grounder after grounder.
Williams’ rigorous series
Perhaps the MVP of the three-game set for Milwaukee was Williams, who pitched three consecutive days for the first time in his major-league career and didn't allow a run while doing so.
Williams recorded the save in a 4-1 win Tuesday on just 12 pitches, then came to the park for the rubber match and told Counsell he felt good enough to pitch.
“That was pretty much it. Told 'Couns' I'd play catch and let him know,” Williams said. “Felt alright, felt like I could do it, so I got out there.”
Without much margin for error, Williams retired Ha-Seong Kim, Robinson Cano and Trent Grisham on flyouts to the outfield to seal the game.
“Today was a good day to go for it,” Counsell said of testing Williams for a third straight day for the first time. “It worked out well.”
Williams has had a trio of shaky outings this year but, aside from that, has been superb. He owns a 3.50 earned run average following Wednesday's outing and his peripheral numbers (1.46 FIP, 3.21 Deserved Run Average) suggest he has been even better than the results would indicate.
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