Trio of solo blasts power the group
ATLANTA – Three solo home runs wound up being just enough for the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon.
Christian Yelich hit one in the first inning, Keston Hiura added one in the fifth and then Ben Gamel struck the decisive blow in the 10th to down the Atlanta Braves, 3-2, at SunTrust Park.
It was a sweet reversal in fortunes for the Brewers, who fell in the 10th inning the night before on Freddie Freeman’s walkoff homer off Josh Hader.
They concluded their longest road trip of the season – 10 games – with a 5-5 record while also avoiding an Atlanta sweep.
While the long ball ultimately won the game for Milwaukee, Brandon Woodruff did the heavy lifting with a career outing. He threw eight strong innings, allowing a pair of solo homers, before handing off to Hader in the ninth.
The Brewers had gotten runners on the corners with one out in the top half of that frame, only to see a bad bounce – literally – keep them from scoring the go-ahead run.
Gamel was at the plate for that third out, so maybe it was fitting it was he who took Jacob Webb deep on his first offering of the 10th, a sinker he drove out to center.
Hader (1-3) ultimately retired all six batters he faced, with a strikeout of Josh Donaldson ending it to give the Brewers their first extra-innings victory in three tries this season.
Yelich got the Brewers into the lead three pitches into the game by depositing a Mike Foltynewicz fastball just over the wall in center.
It was third long ball of the road trip for Yelich, who now has a major-leagueleading 19.
Ronald Acuña Jr. then tied it up six pitches into Woodruff ’s outing, sending a changeup way out to left for his ninth career leadoff homer.
The game remained deadlocked until the fifth, when Hiura hit a first-pitch slider off Foltynewicz into the Milwaukee bullpen to put the Brewers back in front.
Hiura became the second Brewers player to hit his first major-league homer in the series; Jacob Nottingham hit his Friday.
Two batters later there were some fireworks, as manager Craig Counsell was ejected by home-plate umpire Brian O’Nora while arguing that a ball that Orlando Arcia appeared to have hit off his foot should have been ruled foul.
It wasn’t, and Arcia was thrown out at first. After Counsell was ejected, he took his argument back out to crew chief Jeff Kellogg at third base before finally departing.
The ejection was the 13th of Counsell’s managerial career.
Woodruff allowed just two baserunners – both on singles – after Acuña’s homer to enter the seventh with his pitch count at just 61.
But as dialed in as he was, Freeman has been even more so of late.
The day after hitting a walk-off homer to beat Hader and the Brewers in the 10th, he won an eight-pitch battle by taking Woodruff out to center to tie it at 2-2.
It was the 200th of Freeman’s career, and the fourth time in as many games the slugging first baseman has gone deep.
Woodruff finished the seventh and then made it through the eighth to set a new career high. He allowed five hits and didn’t walk a batter while striking out six in his 93-pitch outing.
Milwaukee threatened in the ninth after one-out singles by Grandal and Eric Thames put runners on the corners. But Hiura flew out to shallow center and then, in a bad break of bad breaks, Grandal was thrown out at third after breaking too far off the base on a wild pitch by Jacob Webb.
The ball bounced off the brick wall and right back to catcher Tyler Flowers, who threw down to third to get Grandal.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
GET BACK: Woodruff started Acuña’s second at-bat by brushing him back with a 97-mph fastball, and ended it by breaking his bat as Acuña grounded out to third on another 97-mph heater.
Woodruff also struck out Flowers with a 99-mph fastball in the third – his highest reading of the season. He came in averaging 96.4, according to FanGraphs.com. LOOKING AHEAD: Despite the Brewers having off days on Monday and Thursday this coming week, Counsell said the plan as of now is to keep the rotation as is.
“We’re not going to skip anybody is my thinking right now,” he said. “We may re-arrange it a little bit but we’re not going to skip anybody. We’re in a stretch where we have a bunch of offdays, kind of one a week, so everybody getting an extra day is probably the way it’s most preferable.”
PERALTA IN BULLPEN: While decision time will be looming with Jimmy Nelson toward the end of the week, Counsell confirmed that Freddy Peralta won’t be included among the team’s “initial out-getters” for the foreseeable future.
“Right now, that’s where he fits the best for us,” Counsell said, referring to the bullpen. “It certainly could be temporary. But right now, that’s where he fits.”
SHAW GETTING CLOSER: Third baseman Travis Shaw has been making progress with the right-wrist strain that landed him on the injured list last Tuesday, and could begin a minor-league rehab assignment as early as Wednesday. He’s eligible to come off the IL on Friday, when the Brewers open a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Miller Park.
“He’ll hit on Tuesday and right now we’re looking at Wednesday to start a rehab assignment,” Counsell said. “We’ve got to cross a couple hurdles still, but that’s what we’re looking at.”
MORE INJURY NEWS: Counsell said that it was confirmed that catcher Manny Piña does have a right hamstring strain. He traveled back to Milwaukee from Philadelphia and has remained there doing rehab.
“He’s in treatment mode, not ready to do baseball things,” Counsell said. “We’ll re-evaluate that on Tuesday. I don’t anticipate seeing him on the field pre-game on Tuesday. I think we’re probably looking toward the end of the week that we’ll see him back on the field.”
RECORD
This year: 28-21 Last year: 30-19
COMING UP
Monday: Off day. Tuesday: Brewers vs. Reds, 6:40 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Gio Gonzalez (2-0, 1.69) vs. Cincinnati RHP Sonny Gray (0-4, 4.30). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: 94.5-FM.