Brewers win, 8-1, but Frelick injury overshadows sweep

The Brewers have now won seven straight, but there is concern for Milwaukee’s Gold-Glove winning right fielder

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers completed a sweep of the Washington Nationals on Sunday afternoon, moving the team’s win streak to seven games as they head into the All-Star break. Unfortunately, their 56th win of the season was overshadowed by an injury to Gold Glover Sal Frelick.

After both teams went down with the minimum number of batters in the first — though William Contreras picked up a hit and was thrown out trying to steal second — the Brewers struck first with a three-run second.

With two outs in the inning, Jake Bauers walked, Andruw Monasterio reached on an error, and Eric Haase singled to load the bases. Anthony Seigler cashed two runs in with an RBI single (the first RBIs of his career), and Frelick followed with an RBI single of his own to make it 3-0 after two frames.

With one out in the second, Frelick made a sliding catch down the right field line to set Jacob Young down, but he was slow to get up as it appeared he suffered an injury. He was immediately removed from the game, with Isaac Collins replacing him in the field. After the game, Pat Murphy said Frelick had been dealing with a “sore hamstring” and wanted to play through it before being told he had to leave the game. He will now receive an MRI during the All-Star break.

Following the injury, Freddy Peralta settled in nicely. He set down the next eight batters before Young reached on a single with one out in the sixth. After a two-out walk to Nathaniel Lowe, Peralta got out of the inning without any damage, as he was through six frames on 88 pitches.

In the seventh, the Nats finally broke through, as Luis García Jr. hit a double and Daylen Lile hit an RBI single two batters later to cut the score to 3-1. That was it for Peralta, as he ultimately went 6 ²⁄₃ innings with one run allowed on three hits and a walk, striking out seven.

Grant Anderson replaced Peralta and induced a groundout by Riley Adams to escape the seventh without any further damage.

Both teams failed to threaten in the next inning, but the Crew broke things open in a major way in the eighth.

Contreras led off the inning against Jackson Rutledge (sporting a 6.08 ERA entering the game) with a single, and Christian Yelich followed with a single of his own. Jackson Chourio then followed with a 425-foot homer to right-center on a 3-1 pitch, extending Milwaukee’s lead to 6-1.

That wasn’t all.

Three pitches later, Brice Turang took one out for a solo homer, making it 7-1 Brewers.

After Bauers struck out for the first out of the inning, Caleb Durbin walked, Haase was hit by a pitch (in a scary moment — luckily he was OK), and Joey Ortiz singled to load the bases. Collins followed with an RBI walk to make it 8-1, but Contreras struck out and Yelich flew out to end the frame.

Easton McGee allowed a one-out single to Paul DeJong in the ninth, but he kept the lead at seven as the Brewers took their seventh straight game — and 56th of the first half — by a score of 8-1.

It was a balanced day for the offense, as Contreras was the only Brewer with multiple hits despite a nine-hit day overall. Chourio and Turang provided the knockout punches as Milwaukee’s bullpen went 2 ²⁄₃ innings to complete Peralta’s 11th win of the season heading into the break.

The 56 wins for Milwaukee set a new record for most wins in franchise history entering the All-Star break. Despite the 56-40 record, the Brewers still trail the Cubs by one game in the NL Central, though they own the top NL Wild Card spot and they’re only 2.5 games behind the MLB-best Detroit Tigers, something I think nobody would have predicted when the Brewers sat at 25-28 on May 25.

We’ll now head to the All-Star break as we await news on Frelick’s leg. In the coming days, keep an eye out for All-Star information (while Peralta won’t appear in Tuesday’s game, Jacob Misiorowski and Trevor Megill very well may get an inning), the draft (which is taking place as I’m writing this), and midseason grades. Happy break time!