BREWERS 2, CARDINALS 0 (SUNDAY) Unlikely heroes lead the way to sweep
ST. LOUIS – These Milwaukee Brewers have become road warriors.
Sparked by a home-run-robbing catch by Blake Perkins in the first inning and a clutch single by Owen Miller in the seventh, they completed a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium with a 2-0 shutout Sunday afternoon.
It was the sixth straight victory for the Brewers in St. Louis, who also improved to a major-league-best 10-2 on the road, and their first sweep at Busch Stadium since Sept. 24-26, 2018.
“It’s pretty special,” Miller said of the sweep. “Glad we showed up, got some balls to fall our way and just kept competing.”
Starter Colin Rea, helped immensely by the Perkins catch, was on the ropes early but recovered to provide 5 1⁄ effective innings
3 and Bryan Hudson (2 1⁄ innings), Elvis
3 Peguero (two-thirds of an inning) and Joel Payamps (one inning) combined to finish it up.
Their performances came hours after the Brewers suffered bad news on the injury front, with starter DL Hall going on the injured list with a sprained left knee.
“The guys are battling, and they’re coming up big for us over and over,” said manager Pat Murphy, whose team is in the midst of its third four-game winning streak already this season and atop the National League Central Division standings with a 14-6 record.
Owen Miller comes through
Cardinals starter Sonny Gray upped his strikeout total on the day to 12 by fanning Rhys Hoskins to open the seventh. Save for a first-inning double by Willy Adames, a second-inning single by Brice Turang and a fifth-inning walk by Joey Ortiz he had been largely untouchable.
Then, Perkins and Turang singled in succession to bring Miller to the plate.
Hitless in his two previous at-bats as well as for 2024 (0 for 4), Miller, who got the start at first base, drilled a two-run single to left to give Milwaukee the first lead of the game as well as chase Gray, who saw his streak of 17 consecutive scoreless innings snapped in the process.
“Owen Miller has been in the cooler since last year,” said Murphy. Indeed, his single snapped an eight-game hitless streak that dated to last season. “To get called up and get his first start, get a huge hit, it says a lot about him.”
“It felt good,” Miller added. “I’m happy to be up here with the boys.”
Hat tip to Colin Rea
Considering the way he started the game, with tons of action on the bases in the opening two innings, Rea allowed only two baserunners over the rest of his 5 1⁄3- inning outing.
A leadoff walk in the sixth ended his day. Hudson, from nearby Alton, Ill., took over and retired the next three batters -two via strikeout -- with a large contingent of family and friends looking on from the bleachers.
Rea ended up allowing five hits and three walks with three strikeouts over 89 pitches and dropped his ERA to 2.08.
“Obviously the start didn’t go exactly the way I had envisioned it,” Rea said. “We had zeroes, but Perk coming up with that big catch in the first was huge. Tried making some mechanical changes after the first couple innings, really started attacking the strike zone, making my body work.
“I was kind of over-throwing to start the game and trying to make perfect pitches. We just went back to attacking the strike zone and stayed with some good tempo and rhythm.”
Hudson struck out his fourth batter in his 2 1⁄3- inning outing to open the eighth. Peguero replaced him and after allowing a walk and single to start induced consecutive flyouts to maintain the shutout.
Payamps then tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to lock down the Brewers’ second shutout of the season and his third save.
Hudson’s performance earned him his first major-league victory, and at a ballpark he once played at as a high-schooler.
“Completely different,” Hudson said when asked about comparing the experiences of pitching from the same mound years apart. “It was a really good feeling today to get that first win, and it being against the Cardinals.”
Perkins makes highlight reel
The Cardinals put the first two runners on against Rea in the bottom of the first, which brought up Lars Nootbaar.
He then sent a drive to straightaway center field only to see Perkins make a terrific leaping grab at the wall to rob him of a three-run homer, easily the defensive play of the young season for the Brewers.
“I think that’s what we live for. I’m a little excited, still,” Perkins said hours after the catch. “It’s just part of the work we put in before. I wasn’t really thinking about it; I was just reacting to the play and it found the glove.”
Rea was asked if Perkins had earned a free dinner for his efforts.
“I think he deserves a little more than that,” he said with a chuckle. “Perk’s incredible out there. That was huge; it obviously saved the game right there. And it’s a big out, so I’m able to keep my pitch count just a little bit lower.”
Murphy, who said on Saturday that he wasn’t quite sure about Perkins when he first laid eyes on him in spring training in 2023, was again proven wrong by him.
“I was just saying the one thing I haven’t seen Perkins do is go over the fence and rob one,” he said. “And sure enough, he jumps over the fence and catches one. That’s not easy to do, so credit to the kid.”
Brewers schedule
Brewers at Pirates, 5:40 p.m. Tuesday. Milwaukee LHP Wade Miley (0-1, 5.14) vs. Pittsburgh LHP Bailey Falter (1-1, 4.05). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin Extra. Radio – 94.5-FM.
Brewers at Pirates, 5:40 p.m. Wednesday. Milwaukee TBA vs. Pittsburgh RHP Quinn Priester (0-1, 8.31). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.
SLINGER – “Old” is relative.
In some ways, it does seem as though Ty Majeski has been around the Wisconsin, Midwest and national super late model scene for quite a while. He just started his 12th season with the same group from the La Crosse area.
The kid from Seymour will turn 30 this August.
“I don’t feel like I’m the old guy, but I am,” Majeski said. “Probably the veteran. When you’re racing guys half your age, I think that classifies you.”
The veteran put a hurting on competition young and old Sunday, winning the 100-lap ASA Midwest Tour seasonopening Jerry “Bear” Priesgen Memorial at Slinger Speedway by more than six seconds.
Ty Fredrickson, the impressive 15-year-old Midwest Tour rookie to whom Majeski alluded, didn’t challenge a week after scoring an impressive victory at Dells Raceway Park, getting into several tangles and falling out early in 21st.
Still, youth was well represented with Max Kahler, 21, finishing second and Luke Fenhaus, 20, in third. Both have talked about watching Majeski race while they were growing up.
“I used to be those 15-year-olds,” said Kahler, a finalist in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, nine years after Majeski won the first.
“I’m not an old guy, but I’m one of the older young guys for sure. It’s kind of hard to believe Ty is that old. … But hopefully we’ll be winning as many races when I’m 30.”
Majeski’s super late model victory total includes three Slinger Nationals, 35 on the Midwest Tour plus five championships, and all the major races of that type around the country. The biggest, the Snowball Derby, he’s won twice. Majeski also has three NASCAR truck victories.
“You always learn from people, even if they’re not (directly) helping you, just racing against other guys, the veterans – I’ve been able to travel all across the country, race different people, experience different racetracks and be in a lot of different scenarios,” Majeski said. “And you learn from those different scenarios you’re in.
“In every race I run, I learn something, good or bad. All the years of racing really good racers, whether it be in the South or in the Midwest, you always take something and remember it and be better next time.”
Which brings us back to Sunday. Kahler started on the pole after the 12 fastest qualifiers were inverted and led the first 21 laps. Majeski got past on a restart, and from there Kahler just tried to glean what he could on the tricky quarter-mile track.
“After that final restart in that race, he got clear of me, I got down and followed him for 10-15 laps and then he just set sail,” Kahler said. “Then toward the end, everyone was the same pace, and he just seemed to have something left. I’d like to think he saved something. But he just figured something out and was able to drive a lot better than the rest of us.
“Whether that be my driving or the car, either one, both combined will have to be better than (Majeski) hopefully at the end of the day.”
Majeski, who started fourth, is known for being strong on restarts, so Kahler had a good teacher, just like the veterans from whom the winner learned.
If wisdom comes with age, then Majeski is wise enough to know that his learning on the racetrack will continue for as long he straps in a car. Like Kahler, Majeski and crew chief Toby Nuttleman added to their base of knowledge Sunday, too.
“Anytime you win a race like this, everybody else is going to be getting better next week,” Majeski said. “It’s always evolving, and it’s hard to continually win races. It just is. Just thinking of how far our cars and me and Toby have come and our entire team in the last 11 years is just crazy how far we’ve all come on all facets of our program. You have to keep evolving with the sport.
“Racing evolves very, very quickly and it’s very humbling very quickly at times. Always got to keep your nose down, try to get better. I feel like we could get maybe a little better today. I know it maybe doesn’t look like that, but you have to keep getting better, right? When you get content, that’s when you’re going to get beat.”