Turang, Hoskins lead way in Brewers’ 8-4 win over Mets

Hoskins’ early grand slam gives Brewers lead they never relinquish

Box Score

Though the Brewers are assured of their position in the postseason, they can still play a role in who they’ll end up facing in the wild card round. Their opponent in the regular season’s last series, the New York Mets, are one of three teams that Milwaukee could possibly play next week, making this an intriguing matchup. Adding to the intrigue tonight was a faceoff between former Oakland teammates Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea, who were the one-two punch in the Athletics’ starting rotation in 2021. But an old Mets’ villain put the Brewers up early in this one, and a series of tack-on runs kept New York at arm’s length.

Francisco Lindor, who is likely to finish second in National League MVP voting but has missed about two weeks with back trouble, led off the game with a walk. But Montas got the next three in order, Lindor never advanced past first base, and the Brewers had a zero in the top of the first.

Milwaukee got things going right away in the bottom of the first. Brice Turang, getting a start in the leadoff spot versus a lefty (Murphy said he wanted Turang and Frelick to get as many reps as possible against lefties, so they batted first and second), knocked a single just over Lindor’s glove, and then stole his 48^th base. Sal Frelick struck out and Jackson Chourio hit a weak fly ball to right, but the Brewers were able to mount a two-out rally; William Contreras and Willy Adames walked to load the bases for Rhys Hoskins, noted Met hater. Hoskins put one off the Chorizo beyond the left-field wall for his third grand slam (and 26^th homer) of the season.

Montas got through the top of the second with the help of a weird, fun double play (a ball Adames booted but flipped to Turang) to end the inning. The Brewers added another in the bottom of the second; with one out, Blake Perkins reached on a throwing error by Lindor, stole second (his 23^rd steal), and scored on a Turang double (a ball that old friend Tyrone Taylor dove for in center field but couldn’t quite catch).

In the top of the third, Frelick went hard into the wall on a foul ball by Francisco Alvarez—it was an awkward collision with a spot where there was a little cutout in the wall, and while Frelick did manage to walk off, he was down for a long time and he looked pretty messed up. Garrett Mitchell replaced him in right field. Alvarez ended up taking a walk, and after a couple of outs, Mark Vientos—having a huge year—hit a two-run homer to cut the Mets’ deficit to 5-2.

Contreras hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the third but the Brewers were unable to make anything of it. Montas was on the way to his first clean inning in the top of the fourth, but he yanked a first-pitch fastball right into Jesse Winker’s (“The Wink Show,” as Christian Yelich, in the booth, told us) keister with two outs. It probably wasn’t intentional. Montas then walked J.D. Martinez, which drew a visit from Chris Hook, and Alvarez worked a long at-bat before getting called out on strikes on the 10th pitch. Alvarez, we’ll say, did not agree with the call. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was tossed, and Alvarez was lucky to stay in the game.

The top of the Brewers’ order showed off their speed with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Turang reached on a little tapper in the infield—his third hit off the lefty Manaea—and then Mitchell bounced one over Pete Alonso’s head at first base, which resulted in a double. Turang had to hold at third, but Chourio also reached on an infield hit when he just beat out a throw on an acrobatic diving play by second baseman Jose Iglesias, a safe call that was confirmed on review. That ended Manaea’s night, and reliever José Buttó got Contreras to fly out to center field, but Milwaukee’s lead was back up to four.

Montas was done after four innings—he was reasonably effective but needed 91 pitches to get through four. Joe Ross was the guy out of the bullpen, and he worked around an infield hit by Lindor to put up a zero in the fifth. Buttó pitched a clean fifth, the first 1-2-3 inning of the game for either side.

Ross gave up a cheap infield hit to Iglesias with one out in the sixth, but got Winker to ground into a double play three pitches later. Perkins gave one a ride to deep center in the bottom of the inning off of new pitcher Danny Young, but veteran AmFam Field center fielder Tyrone Taylor played it nicely and made a leaping catch up against the wall. Turang drew a two-out walk, then stole his 50^th base (and third of the game after collecting two in the first). Congratulations, Brice—you’re halfway to becoming the second 50/50 player in major-league history. He then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch (which was also ball four to Mitchell). Adam Ottavino came on to pitch to Chourio, and after a stolen base from Mitchell, Ottavino got Chourio to ground out to short. But Milwaukee had bumped their lead back to five.

With Ross still pitching, Alvarez walked with one out in the top of the seventh, but he had to leave the game after something happened—it’s unclear what—while he was running the bases on a groundout by Taylor. Lindor flew out to end the inning with Alvarez’s replacement, Luis Torrens, on third base. Three solid innings for Ross.

Contreras walked to lead off the bottom of the seventh, but Ottavino got the next three. Hoby Milner replaced Ross in the top of the eighth, and he gave up back-to-back one-out singles to Brandon Nimmo and Alonso before hitting Iglesias to load the bases. Harrison Bader, who entered as a defensive substitute in the seventh, was the batter, and he blasted one into left but Chourio made a fantastic catch running back into the wall in the gap. That momentarily saved two runs, but J.D. Martinez hit a bloop fly ball into shallow right that Turang got to but couldn’t quite handle—it was ruled an error on Turang, a very tough ruling even if it was a play Turang was certainly capable of making. That scored another run to make it 7-4, and Milner was pulled in favor of Trevor Megill, but Torrens did the Brewers a favor and flew out to right on the first pitch he saw.

After the scare in the top of the eighth, the Brewers offense decided to tack on again, as Gary Sánchez led off the bottom of the inning with his 11^th homer. That capped off a really solid night for the Brewers’ offense, which got the big blow in the first inning and then added a run in four of the next seven innings to stay a step ahead of New York.

Megill, who threw just one pitch in the eighth, came back out for the ninth, and he allowed a one-out single to Lindor but had no other issues and finished the game; having entered with a three-run lead, Megill earned his 21st save of the season.

Hoskins had tonight’s big hit, but it was Turang who dominated the box score. The Brewer second baseman reached base four times in five at bats (two singles, a double, and a walk – all against lefties), knocked in a run, scored three times, and stole three bases to give him 50 for the year. He was the only Brewer tonight with multiple hits, but the offense also got solid production from Sánchez (the solo homer), Mitchell (1-for-2, a double, a walk, a stolen base), and Contreras (1-for-2, two walks, a run scored).

Ross led the way on the bump for the Brewers today, and was awarded with a win after three scoreless innings and three strikeouts while scattering two hits and a walk. Montas was a little shaky but not bad, and Megill looked sharp. We won’t talk about Milner.

The only downside to tonight’s game was the injury to Frelick. Pat Murphy told reporters after the game that a X-Rays were “inconclusive,” and he’d have an MRI in the morning. That sounds ominous, but we’ll hope for the best.

The series continues tomorrow at 6:15 p.m. Tobias Myers will pitch for the Brewers, though for how long remains a question. The Mets have not announced a starting pitcher yet. That game is on Fox, so don’t look for it on Bally Sports Wisconsin. As always, you will be able to find it on the Brewers Radio Network.