After the Brewers celebrated an NL Central title in St. Louis on Sunday, they flew to San Diego with more work to do. The series started on a strong note, with both teams batting in what is a potential NLDS matchup. In an exciting extra-innings game, the first round went to the Padres as the Brewers lost 5-4 in 11 innings.
Nick Pivetta started out strong for the Padres, retiring the Brewers in order in the top of the first. Meanwhile, Freddy Peralta began the day with a lineout from Luis Arraez. However,
he followed that up by allowing back-to-back singles to Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill. Peralta struck out Gavin Sheets for the second out, but walked Ryan O’Hearn to load the bases. During the next at-bat against Jake Cronenworth, Peralta tripped during his delivery on a 2-2 count. Since he didn’t release the ball, it was ruled a balk and the runners advanced, which scored Machado and put the Padres up 1-0. Peralta got Cronenworth to fly out to end the inning, but the Padres had the lead.
The Brewers responded immediately. In the second inning, William Contreras led off with a walk. Sal Frelick grounded out and swapped places with Contreras, who was out at second. The Brewers then loaded the bases with an Andrew Vaughn single and Isaac Collins walk. Caleb Durbin brought in the first run of the day, hitting a ground ball single to left for a 1-0 lead.
With the bases still loaded, Joey Ortiz had a chance to drive in another run. Instead, he popped up to the infield for the second out. That brought up Yelich, who didn’t miss his chance. He hit a single to center that easily scored Vaughn. Collins was also on track to score easily, but Durbin decided to try to take the extra base. The Padres caught him and made a quick throw to third for the out. It almost cost the Brewers a run, but Collins barely scored before Durbin was tagged out. The inning was over, and the Brewers had a 3-1 lead.
Pitching with the lead, Peralta settled in for a while. He worked around a single in the second inning to keep the Padres off the board, striking out one in the process. Both sides traded short innings in the third, with both lineups going down in order. Peralta added three strikeouts in that third inning as well, which put him at 199 for the season.
In the fourth inning, Vaughn hit a one-out single to left, but that was all the Brewers managed. Meanwhile, Peralta had another 1-2-3 inning in the third. This included a strikeout of Cronenworth, which was his 200th strikeout of the season. This marks his third straight season with 200 strikeouts.
In the fifth, the Brewers got walks from Yelich and Turang to put another runner in scoring position with two outs. They would be left stranded after Contreras grounded out to end the inning. Meanwhile, the Padres finally broke through again in the bottom of the inning. Iglesias led off the inning with a solo home run, making it a 3-2 game. Peralta retired the next three batters he saw, adding on a strikeout of Elias Díaz as well. Machado almost added another solo home run to end the inning, but it was hit to deep center field, and Chourio was able to run it down.
That would end a short day for Peralta. He pitched just five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk. He also struck out six to increase his season strikeout total to 201. Though Peralta had a high pitch count after two innings, he finished the day at 76 pitches. While that may have been the plan for today’s start, it would come back to hurt the Brewers later.
It was another scoreless inning for the Brewers in the sixth, but they did chase Pivetta from the game. After a two-out walk to Collins, Pivetta came out of the game at 112 pitches. He pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits and five walks with five strikeouts. That was Pivetta’s final start of the regular season, as he will be lined up to start game one of a potential Wild Card series.
In the bottom of the sixth, Aaron Ashby was first out of the bullpen for the Brewers. He had a solid inning, retiring the Padres in order and striking out two.
Heading to the seventh inning, the Brewers put together another two-out scoring chance against the Padres. Yelich drew a one-out walk against reliever Ron Marinaccio, then Turang singled after Kyle Hart entered the game with two outs. They would be left stranded again after Contreras flew out to end the inning.
Pat Murphy went to Nick Mears for the seventh. The inning started out well with Cronenworth grounding out and Bryce Johnson striking out. Unfortunately, Mears unraveled from there. In the next eleven pitches, Mears walked pinch-hitter Ramón Laureano and Arraez (partially thanks to two low strikes that were called balls). That set up Arraez, who singled to right on a high fastball and tied the game at 3-3. Machado flew out to end the inning, setting up a new ballgame after seven.
With the game now tied, the Brewers needed to put together a rally. They got one started when Vaughn drew a one-out walk, and Blake Perkins came in to pinch-run. Jake Bauers was brought in to pinch-hit for Collins, and he hit one deep to the right field corner. However, it was just a bit short, and O’Hearn caught it for the second out. Durbin kept the inning going with a single to right, and Perkins reached third. Rather than use another pinch-hitter, Murphy let Ortiz hit. It was a brutal at-bat, with Ortiz swinging at balls in the dirt — on a night where umpire Roberto Ortiz was not calling anything low a strike. The result was a strikeout that ended the inning.
Jared Koenig came in for the bottom of the eighth inning. It started with a single from Merrill that hit Koenig in the back. Sheets then hit a ball hard to center, but Perkins — who was now playing in center — ran it down for the out. O’Hearn then grounded out to Durbin, who was playing between second and third, and Durbin flipped to Turang for the out. Turang tried to turn the double-play, but Bauers couldn’t come up with the ball, and it almost went into the stands. Koenig finished the inning with a strikeout of Cronenworth to end the inning.
Yelich led off the ninth and almost set the Brewers up with a hard hit ball towards the left field corner. Unfortunately, Johnson made a diving catch and robbed Yelich of at least a double (and possibly a triple). That was it for the inning. Jeremiah Estrada struck out Chourio and Turang, sending the game to the bottom of the ninth.
Needing to extend the game into extra innings, Abner Uribe came in for the ninth inning. Johnson led off with a hard hit ball towards Ortiz, who made a leaping attempt to grab it, but it bounced out of his glove. It did hold Johnson to a single. Next up was Iglesias, who went for the sac bunt but popped it up right at Uribe. Fermin was up next and grounded to Ortiz, who chose to take the out at first instead of second. It didn’t matter as Arraez grounded out to end the inning and send it to extras.
In the tenth, Turang was the automatic runner with Contreras leading off the inning. Contreras fought off a few pitches to start the inning, then hit one deep into right field foul territory. O’Hearn made the catch, but it worked as Turang advanced to third. Frelick followed it with a ground ball to short, and Turang ran on contact. The contact play worked as Turang just beat out a throw from Iglesias, scoring the go-ahead run. After Perkins had a hard-hit flyout for the second out, Rhys Hoskins was called on to pinch-hit for Bauers. It was a three-pitch strikeout (with another high strike called), and the Brewers had to settle with a one-run lead.
Rob Zastryzny was brought in to pitch the tenth inning, with Arraez the automatic runner and Andruw Monasterio coming in to play first base. The Brewers began by intentionally walking Machado, putting on the winning run, but also setting up the double play. It almost worked as Merrill hit a ground ball to Turang. They got Machado at second, but Merrill beat the throw at first, and Arraez moved to third. With one out, Sheets had a hard-hit ground ball to first, and Monasterio made a diving grab. He threw to second to try and start a double-play, but the throw was high. Ortiz pulled it down to get the out at second, but Arraez scored, and the game was tied.
O’Hearn then kept the pressure on with a single to right, putting runners at first and third with two outs. Cronenworth was up next, and Zastryzny walked him on four straight pitches to load the bases. It came down to a battle against Johnson. After another ball and a gift strike call, Johnson grounded out to Durbin, who threw to Turang for the out. The game remained tied and went to the 11th inning.
Monasterio started the 11th as the automatic runner, and Bradgley Rodriguez entered the game in relief. Durbin hit the first pitch he saw hard right between first and second. Unfortunately, Cronenworth was there, and they caught Monasterio off second. A run-down allowed Durbin to get to second, but there was one out. Ortiz was up next and hit a ball that bounced just in front of home plate. However, the Brewers got a gift as Fermin and Rodriguez had a miscommunication. Neither grabbed it, and Ortiz was safe with Durbin moving to third. Yelich followed it up by taking three straight balls before the Padres intentionally walked him to load the bases.
That brought in a battle of the young players as Rodriguez faced Chourio. It was a hard-fought battle that started with two straight balls, then Chourio swung at ball three. He fought it to a full count, which included a foul ball that would have cleared the bases had it been fair. It ended with Chourio hitting a ground ball to Cronenworth for an easy double-play, stopping the Brewers from scoring.
Grant Anderson took the eleventh, needing a clean inning to advance it to the 12th inning. Johnson was the automatic runner for the Padres. Iglesias bunted the first pitch perfectly down the third-base line, and Durbin’s only play was at first for the out. On the second pitch Anderson threw, Fermin hit a single into center, and the game was over.
The Brewers had their chances on offense. They had 15 baserunners as a team — seven hits and eight walks. Yelich reached base four times, going 1-for-3 with three walks. Vaughn went 2-for-3 with a walk. Caleb Durbin also had two hits. The glaring hole in the lineup came from Chourio, who went 0-for-6 with two strikeouts. While a 3-for-11 day with runners in scoring position isn’t bad, the Brewers left 12 runners on base as a team.
With the extra-inning game tonight, both teams are facing a potential tight pitching day after they each used six relievers. After the game, the Brewers announced that recent call-up Bruce Zimmermann will start tomorrow. As for the Padres, Randy Vásquez will make the start.
First pitch is set for 8:40 p.m. CT. The game will be on FanDuel Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.
