Seven-run second inning leads Brewers’ offensive barrage over Diamondbacks

Brewers score 15 runs in rout of Diamondbacks

Box Score

Friday night’s game was a show of pitching between the two teams. Saturday night’s game was a show of both teams’ offenses. The Brewers had more, though, as they took the 15-8 win.

The game started off with a walk from Brice Turang, and the small ball began. Turang stole second, then advanced to third as Jackson Chourio flew out. William Contreras followed that up with a fly ball to right in foul territory. Corbin Carroll made the catch instead of letting it fall foul, and Brice Turang scored from third. That put the Brewers up 1-0.

The Brewers weren’t done in the first just yet. Garrett Mitchell and Willy Adames followed with back-to-back singles, and the Brewers had runners at the corners. With Jake Bauers at the plate, Willy Adames went for a steal of second. However, instead of throwing to second, catcher Adrian Del Castillo threw to pitcher Brandon Pfaadt. He threw to Eugenio Suárez at third, who caught Mitchell off the base and tagged him out to end the inning.

The Diamondbacks tried to counter right away as Corbin Carroll led off the bottom of the first. The ball was heading out over the right field wall, but Sal Frelick timed a jump perfectly and pulled it back in. Frelick was shaken up a bit after the play, but was checked out after the inning and was fine. Tobias Myers finished the first by retiring the side.

In the second, it was looking like a quick inning with two flyouts from Jake Bauers and Blake Perkins. With two outs, the Brewers went to work as they like to do. It started with a series of singles. Frelick singled to start it off, then Joey Ortiz singled to put runners at first and third again. This time, the Brewers would get the run in as Turang singled to bring in the first run of the inning. Following him, Chourio hit the fourth single in a row and the lead built to 3-0 with two outs and runners still at the corners.

Contreras ended the singles streak, but kept the inning going by drawing a walk. Mitchell came up with the bases loaded, looking for a bit of redemption after his baserunning error in the first. He kept the inning going with another walk, bringing in Turang for a 4-0 lead. Next up was Adames, and he took no time to cash in. On the first pitch he saw from Pfaadt, he drove it out to left field and blew the game open, 8-0.

That drove Pfaadt out of the game, finishing his day with just 1 ²⁄₃ innings pitched. The Brewers got eight runs off of him, coming on seven hits and three walks. Brandon Hughes entered the game and struck out Bauers (who recorded two of the three outs in the second) to end the inning. The Brewers finished the inning with seven runs scored: four straight singles, two walks, and a grand slam.

Meanwhile, Tobias Myers was on his game on Saturday night. He faced the minimum through his first four innings, allowing just a single that was erased on a double play. The first trouble he faced came in the fifth inning, when he allowed back-to-back singles to Jake McCarthy and Pavin Smith. However, he stranded them with a strike out of Suárez and a fly out of Del Castillo.

Dylan Floro entered the game for the Diamondbacks in the fourth after Hughes had a scoreless 1 ¹⁄₃ innings. The Brewers got to him immediately. They started with back-to-back doubles from Chourio and Contreras, scoring another run that pushed the lead to 9-0. Mitchell and Adames followed that up with back-to-back home runs. Before Floro had recorded an out, the Brewers had pushed their lead to 12-0.

The game calmed down for the Brewers’ offense following that inning. They added on another in the sixth, though they could have done more damage. Mitchell and Adames walked back-to-back to start the inning, which drove Floro out of the game. Yilber Diaz was the next pitcher in, and Bauers greeted him with a single. The bases were loaded with no outs, and Perkins just missed hitting one out. It was plenty deep to score Mitchell, though. That’s all they could get in that inning, with pinch-hitter Isaac Collins striking out and Ortiz grounding out.

Defensive replacements started coming in to the game from there. For the Brewers, Collins remained in the game as Andruw Monasterio entered for Adames, taking third as Ortiz shifted to shortstop. The Diamondbacks also brought in the bench with Randal Grichuk, Josh Bell, and Luis Guillorme entering for Eugenio Suarez, Christian Walker, and Corbin Caroll, respectively. Myers finally broke there. Three singles in the inning by Perdomo, Newman, and Bell scored the Diamondbacks first two runs. Myers limited the damage, and the inning ended with the Brewers still up 13-2.

Myers came back out for the seventh, trying to give the bullpen a little more rest. However, that was a little too long for him. The Diamondbacks got to him quickly. Smith began the inning with a single, then Grichuk hit one out to close the gap to 13-4. After a double by Del Castillo, Myers day was done. Hoby Milner entered in relief and kept the Diamondbacks in check, getting a flyout, groundout, and strikeout to end the inning. Myers day came to an end with four runs allowed on nine hits in six-plus innings, though most of that damage came in the sixth and seventh innings when the game was out of reach. In a closer game, Myers may not have come back out for the seventh.

What had been a comfortable lead continued to unravel in the eighth inning. After Milner got pinch-hitter Jose Herrera to ground out to start the inning, things got ugly. Bell started it with a single. McCarthy followed that with a ground ball that should have been a double-play ball, but Monasterio bobbled it and there was no chance to get an out. Smith loaded the bases next, and Milner came out for Enoli Paredes. That didn’t stop the bleeding. Grichuk singled to bring in a run. Del Castillo hit a pop up that should have been an easy out, but Monasterio lost the ball and it fell for a hit, scoring another run. Perdomo kept up the pressure with a double, scoring two more and closing the gap to 13-8. Paredes finally got it back together from there, but not by much. Guillorme hit a ball hard, but Ortiz made a nice catch to keep the runners where they were. Newman followed that up with a lineout and the Brewers got out of the inning.

Though the Brewers still held a five-run lead, the game was feeling precarious with the Diamondbacks catching up. The ninth started out better with Ortiz leading off with a double, and he moved to third on a Turang groundout. Chourio hit a bullet that could have scored Ortiz, but Newman made a leaping catch to keep Ortiz at third. That didn’t last, with Contreras giving the Brewers some insurance. A two-run home run to right center, into the pool, extended the lead to 15-8.

Paredes returned to finish the game out in the ninth inning. Herrera began with a hard hit ball to the right field corner, but Chourio ran it down for the first out. A routine grounder to Turang by Bell got the second out, and another ground ball to Ortiz from McCarthy ended the game.

On offense, seven Brewers recorded multi-hit games. The only two Brewers who did not have a multi-hit game were Frelick (who went 1-for-3) and Perkins (who went 0-for-3 with a walk). Adames led the offense with a 3-for-3 day, hitting two home runs and driving in five. Mitchell and Contreras also added on home runs in the win. Adames’ two home runs also made him the Brewers’ franchise leader for home runs by a shortstop in a season, surpassing his 2022 season total of 31 homers.

Meanwhile, the pitching staff mostly was able to rest the bullpen regulars, though they didn’t get as much as they had hoped. Myers allowed four runs in six-plus innings, Milner was charged for three runs (two earned), and Paredes was charged for the other run. While the Brewers only had to use two relievers, Ashby was warming up at one point in the eighth.

Results around the league are also good for the Brewers. While the Phillies beat the Mets 6-4, the Dodgers lost to the Braves 10-1, and the Rockies walked off in extra innings over the Cubs, 6-5. That drops the Brewers magic number to win the NL Central down to just three, and the Brewers are now just one game behind the Dodgers for the second seed (though the Dodgers have the tiebreaker).

The offenses have heated up now as the Brewers will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon. DL Hall will face Zac Gallen in the final game of the series. First pitch is set for 3:10 p.m. on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.