Eighth-inning rally leads to Brewer victory over White Sox

Jake Bauers’ big hit was his first off a lefty this season

Box Score

The Brewers and White Sox played the second of a three-game series this evening in Chicago, where Tobias Myers took the mound versus a man with heavy Brewer ties, the right-hander Shane Smith. Smith, who had back-to-back very good seasons in the Milwaukee farm system the last two years, was left unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft, and has been Chicago’s best starting pitcher on this young season. Smith didn’t pitch badly against his former organization and Myers was out of this one early, but in a game that stayed undecided until late, the Brewers got a timely hit from a man in an unfamiliar situation.

Milwaukee got off to a nice start tonight, and it was Isaac Collins—a last-minute addition to the starting lineup when Brice Turang was scratched with an illness—who got things going. Collins started the game by hitting a soft liner to exactly the right spot down the left field line that ended up as a double. It looked like the Brewers might squander the leadoff double when Jackson Chourio grounded out (but advanced the runner) and Christian Yelich struck out with a runner on third and one out, but William Contreras came through with a two-out RBI single to make it 1-0.

That wasn’t all, though: Sal Frelick hit a “double” to center field on a ball that looked at first blush like Chicago center fielder Luis Robert Jr. had caught, but he sort of snow-coned it and the ball pretty clearly hit the ground, and heads-up baserunning put Frelick at second base (and Contreras at third). The White Sox had another chance to get out of the inning when Rhys Hoskins hit a slow grounder to third, but third baseman Gage Workman, worried about getting the ball to first in time, Bucknered it. The error scored Contreras; after a Jake Bauers walk, Joey Ortiz almost blew the game open with a grand slam, but it was caught in deep left for the third out and the Brewers had to settle for a two-run lead.

Myers, who struggled with his command in his first outing against the Giants, walked the leadoff hitter Joshua Palacios, but recovered to have a nice first inning by striking out Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn and getting Andrew Benintendi on a deep fly ball.

The Brewers didn’t add to their lead in the top of the second, though they had to endure a somewhat frightening moment: Smith came up and in on Collins and it got away from him and hit Collins. The replay showed that Collins successfully protected his face with his arm, but it was a close call—the pitch was going straight for his head. There was a little bit of a delay while trainers checked on Collins—he stayed in, for the moment—and Chourio grounded into a double play after everything got sorted out.

Myers ran into trouble in the bottom of the second. Miguel Vargas hit a leadoff single, and then Myers really struggled to throw strikes. He walked Matt Thaiss on four pitches, and then he did throw strikes to Lenyn Sosa but Sosa fought a couple off before hitting a single to center that scored Vargas. Myers then walked Brooks Baldwin, and the bases were loaded with no outs and a run already in.

Luckily, these are the White Sox. After a visit from Chris Hook, Myers struck out Workman looking, and then he made one more mistake—he hit Palacios, which tied the game at two—before getting Robert Jr. to ground into an inning-ending double play. Chicago had tied it up, but it could have been a lot worse.

Smith struck out Yelich on three pitches for the second time to start the top of the third, and then should have gotten a strikeout looking on a 3-2 pitch to Contreras but it was called a ball (a mistake, I think). Frelick then appeared to hit into a double play to end the inning, but Milwaukee challenged, saying that the shortstop Baldwin’s foot left the bag before he caught the ball on the turn. The umpires agreed, and Contreras was returned to second base with two outs. If nothing else, the Brewers made Smith work a bit more: Hoskins worked a seven-pitch walk, but Bauers flew out to shallow center to end the inning.

Two Brewers were pulled for the bottom of the third. Myers, who needed 49 pitches to get through two innings, was not allowed to go back out for the third after he was extremely fortunate to get through the second with his team not behind. (This was not injury related—he just didn’t have it tonight.) The other player pulled was Collins, who took that ball to his elbow in the second but stayed in the game in the bottom of that inning. The Brewers announced that he was pulled with an “elbow contusion.” Collins—who, remember, replaced an ill Brice Turang during warmups—was replaced by Vinny Capra.

The new Brewer pitcher was Tyler Alexander, who made a few starts earlier this season but with the starting rotation no longer in crisis mode has moved into a long relief role. He got off to a nice start, with a three-up three-down bottom of the third.

Joey Ortiz started the third with a bloop single and the not-so-good White Sox defense gave him an extra base when Benintendi and Robert combined for a double dose of bad outfield defense (Benintendi on the bobble, Robert on the bad throw). Caleb Durbin followed with a base hit to right that put runners on the corners, and then Capra, who is in the midst of a deep slump, put some of the best wood on a ball he’s done in weeks. His fly ball deep into the gap was caught by Robert Jr., but it easily scored Ortiz from third. Things went sideways after that: Thaiss picked off Durbin on a snap throw after a Chourio swing and miss, and one pitch later Chourio struck out. But Milwaukee had its lead back.

Alexander worked another quick inning in the fourth with three fly-ball outs. Yelich managed to not strike out on three pitches in the top of the fifth, instead hitting a weak grounder to first. Contreras followed with a single, his second of the game and the third time on base for him. But Frelick popped out and Hoskins struck out, and Smith was through five.

Alexander got to eight-up, eight-down before allowing his first baserunner, a two-out single by Robert. He stole second, and Benintendi reached on catcher’s interference on a 3-2 pitch, and with two runners on Pat Murphy decided to move to Grant Anderson. Anderson gave up a base hit to Vaughn, and Robert scored, though Frelick did throw Benintendi out at third. Alexander deserved better than his fate, as that run was charged to him; he pitched quite well.

It was a new ballgame, so to speak, in the top of the sixth, and Smith was pulled after 80 pitches—the former Brewer farmhand allowed three runs in five innings, though only one of those was earned. The new pitcher was right-hander Steven Wilson, and he had the White Sox’ first clean inning of the game when he retired Bauers, Ortiz, and Durbin in order.

Vargas led off the bottom of the sixth with a ground ball through the right side for his second hit, and Anderson then walked Thaiss, and Murphy pulled the plug on Anderson’s outing tonight. It wasn’t good: he allowed Vaughn’s RBI single with the out on the basepaths that ended the fifth, then gave up a hit and a walk to start the sixth. Nick Mears replaced him, inheriting both runners, and he needed just one pitch to get Sosa to fly out to left for the first out and two more to get Baldwin to ground into an inning-ending double play. A beautiful job by Mears in a tough spot.

Wilson returned for the seventh. Capra struck out, then Chourio made good contact but hit it right at Robert, and with two outs Chicago manager Will Venable made the move to lefty Cam Booser to face Yelich. Booser’s first pitch was up and in and the second outside, but Yelich rolled over a 2-0 fastball and grounded out to second. Tough night for Yeli.

Mears, who threw only three pitches in the sixth, did not, for some reason, return for the seventh. Instead it was Jared Koenig, and he got the first two out before giving up a two-out single to Robert, his second hit. But Robert was thrown out trying to steal second, and the inning was over.

Contreras reached for the fourth time to start the eighth when he drew his second walk. Frelick then laid down a perfect bunt and let the White Sox do the rest: Sosa, the second baseman, threw the ball away trying to get Frelick at first (he wouldn’t have gotten him even with a good throw). Frelick stayed at first, but Contreras got up to third with nobody out, giving Milwaukee a golden opportunity to restore their lead. Booser and Hoskins had a long battle, which ended in a walk on the tenth pitch, loading the bases.

Down several bench bats, Milwaukee chose to let Bauers, who didn’t have a hit against a lefty this season, hit against Booser instead of using the right-handed Daz Cameron. But on the second pitch Booser threw—his last of the game—Bauers smoked one into the right field gap, scoring Contreras and Frelick and putting runners on second and third with still no outs.

Jordan Leasure replaced Booser and got the first out when Ortiz hit a ground ball right to a drawn-in Sosa, who threw home and got Hoskins at the plate. Milwaukee did get another, though, when Durbin hit a sac fly into right that scored Bauers. Capra struck out to end the inning, but the Brewers had earned a late 6-3 advantage.

Koenig stayed in to face the left-handed Benintendi but gave up a single to start the bottom of the eighth, and he then gave way to Abner Uribe. A wild pitch allowed Benintendi to advance, which mattered; after Vaughn struck out, Vargas singled for the third time in the game, which scored Chicago’s fourth run. Uribe struck out Thaiss (twice—the ump blew a call on 1-2), and then Sosa hit a 57.8 mph blooper to exactly the right spot over first base for a two-out hit. With runners on the corners, Venable made his move, bringing on Edgar Quero, who has been one of the the White Sox’ best hitters on this young season. Uribe fell behind, worked it back full, Quero battled off a pitch, and then made sharp contact but hit it right at Capra. The groundout ended the inning and the Brewers’ lead remained, at 6-4.

Fraser Ellard came on to pitch in the top of the ninth and made mincemeat of Chourio and Yelich (Yelich struck out on three pitches for the third time in this game) and got Contreras to fly out on the first pitch he saw, so the lead would remain at two. That meant this was a Trevor Megill game; he hadn’t pitched since giving up the walk-off homer to Nolan Arenado on Saturday.

Megill struck out Bobby Dalbec on three pitches to get things started, but Michael A. Taylor dropped down a perfect bunt to reach with one out. That made the hypothetically dangerous Luis Robert Jr. the tying run, but Robert has, of course, been awful since the beginning of last season. He fouled off the first two pitches he saw, then held up on a very good knuckle curve; that curve set up the next pitch, though, and Robert was unable to catch up to a 98 mph fastball up in the zone. Megill then lost his command, though, as Benintendi walked on four pitches, which brought Vaughn to the plate as the winning run. He took a huge hack at a first-pitch curveball but missed, then grounded out to second on the second pitch. It wasn’t a stress-free ninth inning, but Megill did the job and his stuff looked quite good.

It was just the White Sox, but this felt like a good win. The Brewers did not play their best, and it felt like they were in danger at times, but they pulled this one out. Would they have won against a different team? Probably not, but right now, we’ll take the win.

Myers struggled tonight, but the Brewers got good work from Tyler Alexander and Nick Mears, while Jared Koenig, Abner Uribe, and Trevor Megill did just enough to win the game. Grant Anderson also pitched. Offensively, Contreras had a very nice game (two singles, two walks, two runs scored, an RBI), but it was Bauers who had the game’s big hit, that two-run double to break the 3-3 tie in the eighth. Chourio and Yelich both looked pretty bad, and the team will hope that Collins, who left after getting plunked, will be fine.

Even after the tough four-game losing streak that ended the San Francisco series and started the St. Louis one, the Brewers can finish this long road trip at .500 with a win tomorrow: a sweep in Chicago would get them to 5-5 on the trip.