Brewer bats wake up in 11-3 victory over Athletics

Every Brewer has a hit and run scored in complete effort

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers and Oakland Athletics opened a three-game series tonight in Oakland—very likely the last series that the Brewers will ever play in Oakland—in which Brewers starter Aaron Civale and Athletics starter J.P. Sears squared off.

It was an eventful first four innings, but the Brewers ultimately overwhelmed Oakland’s pitching as every starter had at least one hit and scored at least one run. Milwaukee’s 11 runs scored were the most since their 16-7 thrashing of Atlanta on Aug. 8.

The Brewers were forced to play from behind early tonight, but the first inning could have been a lot worse. After Sears worked a 1-2-3 top of the first, Lawrence Butler hit Civale’s second pitch over the wall in center field for his first career leadoff homer. Civale then walked Brent Rooker and, after getting J.J. Bleday to pop out, gave up a single to Miguel Andujar. Shea Langeliers struck out and Seth Brown walked to load the bases, but Zack Gelof flew out to left and despite four batters reaching in the inning, Oakland only got one run.

Milwaukee, whose offense has been mostly struggling lately, found a quick response tonight. Willy Adames led off the second with a single (after going 0-for-9 in the St. Louis series) and Gary Sánchez followed with a screamer that got by Max Schuemann at shortstop. That brought up Rhys Hoskins—another player who didn’t get a hit in St. Louis—and he put one on the steps beyond the left field fence for a three-run homer, the team’s first since last Saturday.

But the Brewers were far from done. Joey Ortiz followed Hoskins with another blast, this one to center field. Andruw Monasterio’s base hit to right was the fifth-straight hit off of Sears to start the second inning, which prompted a mound visit. Sears got Sal Frelick to pop out for the first out, but the Brewers weren’t done beating up on him. Jackson Chourio hit a solid single to left field that got by the left fielder Miguel Andujar (who has spent most of his career in the infield), which allowed Monasterio to score and Chourio to reach second. Sears finally got Blake Perkins (back in the lineup after a short IL stint) and William Contreras to end the inning, but the Brewers had answered in a big way and led 5-1.

Civale came back out and looked much more comfortable and had a “shutdown inning” in the bottom of the second on just eight pitches. Sears was surely thrilled to be back out so quickly after throwing 34 pitches in the second, but he looked good as he had a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Adames made a nice play (a welcome sight for a guy whose defense has been shaky lately) for the third out of another three-up, three-down inning for Civale in the bottom of the third.

Milwaukee added a couple more runs with a two-out rally in the top of the fourth. Frelick blooped one into center field that ended up as a double when Bleday couldn’t quite come up with it on a slide, and Chourio followed by blasting a double off the wall in left center. (You will not see two more different doubles than those two.) The next batter, Perkins, hit a ball solidly up the middle that Gelof reached, but he lost the ball while trying to make an acrobatic (and ill-advised) throw to first, and Chourio was able to score. It was ruled a hit and an error, and Milwaukee chased Sears when Contreras followed with a walk, the fourth straight Brewer to reach with two outs. Ross Stripling replaced Sears and struck out Adames to end the inning, but Milwaukee took a 7-1 lead to the bottom of the fourth.

Oakland cooked up a response, though. The first four A’s batters reached in the bottom of the fourth when Langeliers and Brown singled and Gelof and Darell Hernaiz walked, the second of which scored a run. After a visit from Chris Hook, Civale struck out Schuemann and got what could have been a double play from Butler, but it deflected off Civale’s glove and was instead an RBI fielder’s choice. Rooker made good contact with two outs but Frelick made it look easy as he got to the ball down the right field line, and the fourth inning ended with the score 7-3 to the Brewers.

Civale was replaced in the bottom of the fifth by Bryan Hudson, likely appearing in a lower-pressure spot due to his recent struggles. Bleday hit a hard line drive on Hudson’s first pitch but it was right at Frelick, and Hudson retired the next two with no trouble. Civale’s final line tonight: four innings, four hits, four walks, three runs (all earned), and three strikeouts on 82 pitches.

Things were pretty calm until a wild play to start the bottom of the seventh, when Schuemann led off trying to bunt for a hit and new pitcher Joel Payamps tried to throw him out (another ill-advised throw) but instead threw it into the vast swath of foul territory down the right-field line. But Schuemann tried make it all the way to third, and the Brewers threw him out, a call which stood after an Oakland challenge. Payamps then got Butler to fly out to right and struck out Rooker, and what could have been a rough moment instead turned into a relatively quick and painless inning.

Stripling, who has been starting for most of the season, was still pitching in the eighth inning, and he’d done a great job settling the game down. Hernaiz made a beautiful bare-hand play on a weak ground ball down the third-base line from Ortiz, who led off the inning; it was originally ruled an out but a review quickly overturned it and Ortiz had an infield hit. But Monasterio grounded into a double play, and while Frelick did get a two-out single (his second hit), Chourio struck out and Stripling was through four scoreless innings in relief.

Though the Brewers had a four-run lead, they were not screwing around with their bullpen tonight, as Trevor Megill was in for the eighth (following two innings of Hudson and one of Payamps). He had no trouble, and sat the A’s down in order.

Looking to add a little insurance in the top of the ninth, Perkins led off against new pitcher Dany Jiménez with a double, and Contreras—the only Brewer at that point without a hit—hit one down the line that Hernaiz knocked down, which saved a run, but it went as a single. That put runners at the corners with nobody out, and Adames followed with a walk, loading the bases. Sánchez was next, and he hit one over the head of Bleday in center field that ended up as a three-run triple, just the third triple of Sánchez’s 10-year career. He scored when Hoskins hit a sac fly to left, and the Brewers took an 11-3 lead.

With their new eight-run advantage, it was Oakland native Joe Ross on the hill in the ninth for the Brewers. Ross gave up a leadoff single to Brown, but got the next three, with some help from Frelick, who made a nice diving catch in the Brewers’ bullpen down the right-field line for the second out.

It was a complete team effort tonight for the Brewers, who put up 14 hits, though no player had more than two. Notables included Chourio, who was 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored; Sánchez, who was 2-for-4 with a triple, a run scored, and three RBIs: Hoskins, who was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer and an RBI sac fly; and Ortiz, who was 2-for-5 with a solo homer. But everyone got in the hit column, and every single Brewer who played scored at least one run.

Civale wasn’t nearly as sharp as he had been in his last two outings, but he was able to limit damage in two precarious innings. The bullpen looked refreshingly sharp tonight, as Murphy used the A-squad up until the lead ballooned in the ninth inning.

It was a nice way for the team to recover from two tough days in St. Louis on Wednesday and Thursday. They’ll look to continue their good play in a matinee game tomorrow, when Colin Rea takes on Joe Boyle at 3:07 p.m. CT.