Civale, Brewers ride early offense to 8-3 victory

It was Civale’s first W in four months

Box Score

The high-powered Milwaukee Brewers of the last four days have made the flailing Milwaukee Brewers of the previous six weeks feel like a distant memory. After a comprehensive beatdown of the Braves in Atlanta this week, Milwaukee’s offense continued to click early in this game, giving them a massive early lead that Aaron Civale and the Brewer bullpen had no trouble holding.

The Brewers, in their light blue city connect jerseys, couldn’t have asked for a better start tonight. Aaron Civale worked through a quick top of the first when he got Jonathan India, Elly De La Cruz, and TJ Friedl on just nine pitches. Then in the bottom of the inning, Milwaukee showed no quarter to the nephew of their long-ago third baseman, Cincinnati starter Carson Spiers. He was undone by a lack of control: Jackson Chourio walked with one out and stole second base, then William Contreras walked with two outs, and with two outs Willy Adames had the inning’s only hit, a no-doubt, opposite-field shot into the right-field bleachers that gave Civale a three-run cushion. As the tweet below notes, it was Adames’s fourth homer in the last four days.

Jeimer Candelario gave Civale a scare in the top of the second when he hit one to the wall in deep center, but Garrett Mitchell made the catch with no trouble, and Civale worked around a two-out single from Ty France to get another fairly quick and painless inning. The Milwaukee offense kept it going in the second inning, when Jake Bauers reached on a cue-shot single down the third base line and scored on a double into the left field gap by Joey Ortiz. After that, the Brewers found power from an unlikely source: the opposite-field stroke of Brice Turang, who knocked a two-run homer just over the wall into the Brewers bullpen. That made it 6-0, and there was still only one out in the second inning.

Spiers did get out of the second without further trouble, but after another quick top of the third (a leadoff double was erased on a 4-unassisted double play when old friend Luke Maile lined out to Turang), the Brewers were back on Spiers in the bottom of the third. William Contreras led off with a sharp single to left and scored two batters later when Sal Frelick hit a sinking line drive to center that got by a diving Friedl. Frelick ended up on third, and he scored when the next batter, Rhys Hoskins, snuck a single through a drawn-in infield. That made it 8-0, and it extended Hoskins’ hitting streak to 13.

Civale continued cruising in the fourth, and had his strikeout ball working: he struck out the side (around a Spencer Steer walk) and was through four scoreless on just 53 pitches. Spiers, who was going to be sacrificed in this one, settled down in the fourth and had his first scoreless inning when he retired the top of the Brewers’ lineup in order.

Another easy inning in the top of the fifth set up Civale for something he hadn’t done since early April: get a win. Since April 9^th, when he moved to 2-1 after a 6-4 Rays victory over the Angels, Civale has gone 0-6 in his decisions. I know that wins don’t matter much, but it’s got to be something that bothers guys.

Spiers was back in trouble in the bottom of the inning, though it wasn’t entirely his fault. Contreras led off with a walk, and Adames hit a ball to the wall in left but Steer made a jumping catch to rob him of extra bases. A sort of bizarre play occurred after that when Frelick hit a fly ball to center field that Friedl appeared to catch and then drop, but it was ruled that he never made the catch, which held up after Cincinnati challenged it and resulted in an E8. Hoskins walked to load the bases, but Bauers and Ortiz struck out and Spiers wriggled off the hook. His night was over—he needed 108 pitches to complete five innings but managed to go unscored upon in the last two.

Civale walked Maile to lead off the sixth, but easily got India, De La Cruz, and Friedl to get through the inning unscathed. The top of the Brewers lineup faced off against their recent teammate, Jakob Junis, in the bottom of the sixth and went one-two-three.

Civale went out back for the seventh, as his pitch count was still in pretty good shape, but the first blemish on his line came when Steer led off with a solo homer to left. Candelario followed with a single and France lined a double into the right field gap, but the Brewers were able to execute a perfect relay and Adames nailed Candelario at the plate for the first out. That was it for Civale, though, as he was replaced by Nick Mears, but that wasn’t it for Civale’s pitching line, as Mears’s first opponent, Stuart Fairchild, lined a two-run homer deep into left. Noelvi Marte followed with a double, and the first five Reds of inning had hits. That was enough to make some Brewers fans nervous, but Mears got Maile to ground out to second and struck out Will Benson to get out of the inning with the Brewers still up by five.

Despite the rocky ending, it was one of Civale’s best starts of the season: 6 1/3 innings, five hits, two walks, five strikeouts, and two runs (both earned). He was probably a little better on July 11^th in his second start as a Brewer when he allowed just one run in 6 1/3, but that came in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh.

Yosver Zulueta replaced Junis in the bottom of the seventh and looked impressive as he struck out Contreras and Adames and got help from a diving Benson on a dying quail in shallow left field from Frelick. It was Jared Koenig in the eighth for Milwaukee, and he had to battle against his first batter, De La Cruz, who pushed Koenig to 12 pitches but eventually struck out. Koenig had an easier time with Friedl, but he allowed back-to-back hits with two outs to Friedl (a single) and Candelario (a double). That put runners on second and third and necessitated a mound visit; France, the next batter, made good contact but Frelick got a good jump and made the catch down the right field line to end the inning.

Fernando Cruz carved up the Brewers in the bottom of the eighth, which set up a ninth-inning appearance for Joel Payamps, who was on to protect the home squad’s five-run lead. The Brewers flashed the leather in the top of the ninth, highlighted by a diving play into foul territory and a strong throw from Ortiz for the second out.

Milwaukee’s offense did very little after the third inning today, but it didn’t matter by that point: the good play from Atlanta carried over through the first three and gave the Brewers everything they needed tonight. No Brewer had more than one hit in this one, but several had big hits: Adames and Turang with their homers, Frelick with the triple, and Ortiz with the double. Those four extra-base hits produced seven runs, with Hoskins’ RBI single accounting for the eighth. The bullpen wasn’t perfect today, but they had plenty of cushion and were able to get Civale his first win as a Brewer, four months to the day since his last “official” victory.

Milwaukee will take their first shot at winning their second straight series tomorrow at 6:10 p.m. when Tobias Myers takes the hill against Nick Martinez.