The Milwaukee Brewers completed another series win on Sunday afternoon, sneaking away with a 2-0 victory over the Astros behind a Jake Bauers homer and another strong showing from Jacob Misiorowski.
After the Brewers went down in order against Tatsuya Imai in the first, Misiorowski returned the favor with a pair of strikeouts in a 1-2-3 frame in the bottom of the inning.
The teams traded 1-2-3 innings in the second, and David Hamilton became the first baserunner of the afternoon in the third
with a single to center. He proceeded to steal a pair of bases while Joey Ortiz walked to put runners at the corners with one out for Christian Yelich, though Yeli struck out and Garrett Mitchell grounded out to help Imai escape the jam.
Misiorowski got into a bit of trouble himself in the bottom of the third, allowing a pair of singles and hitting Yordan Alvarez with a pitch to load the bases with two outs, but he was able to get out of it with a groundout by Christian Walker.
The Brewers were first on the scoreboard, as Andrew Vaughn hit a single the other way with one out before Bauers — who fouled a pitch deep to right earlier in the at-bat — slugged one over the wall in left for a 2-0 lead on his ninth homer of the season.
Now staked to a lead, Misiorowski worked around a one-out double by Isaac Paredes in the fourth to maintain the lead.
Hamilton drew a walk to start the fifth for Milwaukee and stole another base before moving to third on a sac bunt by Ortiz — Ortiz was originally ruled safe on the play, but it was overturned upon review. In a repeat of the third inning, Yelich came up with a runner at third and less than two outs but failed to bring him home as he struck out. Mitchell followed with a flyout, and Imai was out of the inning.
Both teams then traded 1-2-3 innings until the ninth inning, when Vaughn slugged a one-out double to left-center. Vaughn was replaced on the basepaths by pinch-runner Blake Perkins, who proceeded to be caught by pitcher Nate Pearson in no man’s land.
Trevor Megill entered for the save in the ninth. He recorded Milwaukee’s fifth consecutive 1-2-3 inning, picking up a pair of strikeouts for a relatively low drama 2-0 victory and series win in Houston.
Bauers was the star on offense thanks to his two-run homer, while Vaughn was the only player with multiple hits (a double and a single), and Hamilton reached twice on a single and a walk, tying his career-high with three steals to give him 13 for the year.
On the pitching side, Misiorowski closed out a historic month of May with seven scoreless innings, striking out eight and allowing just three hits and no walks to lower his May WHIP (0.543 to 0.522) and ERA (0.29 to 0.23). He also finishes the month with 57 strikeouts over 38 1/3 innings. With Cristopher Sánchez (0.00 ERA, 0.718 WHIP, 45 K over 39 IP) also in contention, is Miz the NL’s Pitcher of the Month? We’ll have to wait until later this week to find out.
Abner Uribe and Megill took the final two innings to close things out, as Uribe picked up his sixth hold of the year and Megill collected his eighth save of the season.
Now at 35-21 on the season, the Brewers are set to return home for a four-game set with the Giants. First pitch on Monday night is at 6:40 p.m., with Shane Drohan slated to start for Milwaukee opposite Landen Roupp for San Francisco.
