Milwaukee blows out Washington for third straight game, 14-3

Turang homers twice as the Crew complete the sweep

Box Score

The Brewers can’t stop scoring right now. Milwaukee has now scored at least eight runs in three straight games, completing a convincing sweep of the Washington Nationals.

Milwaukee got on the board early in this one after Brice Turang struck out to lead off the game. The next three hitters — William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn, and Christian Yelich — all singled. Yelich’s single knocked in Contreras to make it 1-0.

In the second inning, Anthony Seigler led off with a walk. Brandon Lockridge, the next batter, singled on a ground ball deflected by Nationals starter Brad Lord towards the left side of the infield. Seigler rounded second base hard, as he saw the third baseman jog toward the deflected ball, but had second thoughts about trying to take the base and quickly stopped. Unfortunately, he slipped trying to stop his momentum, and the throw from third baseman Jose Tena beat him back to the bag. Brice Turang, who was up next, hit a bomb into the right-field stands to make it 3-0 Brewers.

Logan Henderson, making his first start since Milwaukee brought him back up from Triple-A Nashville, was absolutely dealing through the first four innings. He’d allow just one hit and no runs through four, striking out four and walking two.

Hendo finally got hit around a little bit in the fifth. He got Robert Hassell III to fly out to Blake Perkins, but Drew Millas doubled and Jacob Young knocked him in with a line drive single into left field to make it 3-1. That would be it for Henderson, who ended up going 4 ¹⁄₃ innings while allowing one run on three hits and a pair of walks. Hendo gave way to Aaron Ashby, who struck out CJ Abrams and James Wood to get out of the inning.

Milwaukee added a couple of insurance runs in the top of the sixth. Blake Perkins got the inning started with a leadoff walk, and Caleb Durbin — pinch-hitting for Seigler — singled to advance him to second. Washington brought in Cole Henry to face Lockridge, who knocked Perkins in with a sac fly. Durbin then stole third and took home on a throwing error by Millas. The throw was certainly off the mark, and Durbin would have been safe anyway, but it seemed somewhat catchable for Tena at third.

Joey Ortiz then walked, still with only one out in the inning. Brice Turang flew out to left field for the second out, but Ortiz (correctly) assumed that left fielder Dayton Lile wouldn’t come up gunning and took second with a heads-up play. The next batter was William Contreras, who grounded out to third base to end the inning.

Ashby, who was absolutely dealing, shut down the Nationals in the bottom of the frame.

Milwaukee’s offense exploded in the top of the seventh, scoring seven runs before the Nationals were able to get out of the inning. The Crew loaded the bases with one out courtesy of walks from Yelich and Perkins and a single from Isaac Collins. Nationals pitcher Zack Brzykcy then hit Durbin with a pitch, bringing in Yelich. Lockridge hit a hard line drive into center for a two-run single, then advanced on a wild pitch to Ortiz, who promptly hit the next pitch down the right-field line for a two-run single, making it 10-1 Brewers.

Nats manager Miguel Cairo had seen enough and, with Brice Turang coming up, pulled Brzykcy in favor of Ryan Loutos. Loutos threw a pitch that was pretty far inside, but Brice Turang had other ideas:

DL Hall came in for the bottom of the seventh and retired the Nationals in order. Milwaukee got a couple more insurance runs in the top of the eighth thanks to an Ortiz two-run double.

Hall, who was still in for the ninth, gave up a couple of runs on a one-out RBI double by Millas to make it 14-3. His replacement, Grant Anderson, walked Jacob Young, but got Brady House to ground into a double play to end the game.

Overall, an incredibly encouraging series from the Brewers. Very hard to complain about scoring 38 runs in three games, especially with Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio both missing most (all in the case of Chourio) of the weekend. The Brewers will continue their NL East road trip tomorrow against the Atlanta Braves.