Box Score
Early on in this one, it looked like the Brewers might get blown out. Brewer starter Robert Gasser was teetering on the edge, while after a rough start the Twins’ Taj Bradley was locked in. But the Brewers scratched and clawed their way back into this one, and behind a big night from Brice Turang and a fantastic 4 1/3 innings from their bullpen, Milwaukee took a late lead and finished off a comeback victory.
After Austin Martin lined out to left on the first pitch of the game, Ryan Jeffers lined a ball down the right-field line, but a fortunate bounce went right to Jake Bauers who held him to a single. Gasser came back with a nice strikeout of Royce Lewis, but Josh Bell—who, based on the last two days, is the greatest baseball player of all time—battled from 0-2 and flicked a two-out single into left to put runners on the corners with two out. Gasser, though, got Kody Clemens to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Turang then got the Brewers off to a good start by sending a fly ball bouncing off the wall in right field for a leadoff double. Jackson Chourio drew a five-pitch walk, and Bauers lined a single into right—Turang, who had to pause to ensure it wouldn’t be caught, moved up to third, and the first three Brewers were all on base.
Bradley got ahead of the next batter, William Contreras, 0-2, but a curveball got away and he hit Contreras to bring in the game’s first run. Garrett Mitchell was next, and he hit a soft line drive right back to Bradley who snagged it for the first out—fortunately all the Brewer baserunners retreated quickly to their bases to avoid a double play. Andrew Vaughn struck out and Christian Yelich grounded out up the middle, and the Brewers were only able to muster one run—on a hit-by-pitch—after loading the bases with nobody out.
After the letdown in the bottom of the first, Luke Keaschall came out and led off the second with a ground-rule double just beyond the reach of Mitchell in the right-field gap. Gasser got ahead of the next batter, Kaelen Culpepper, but hit him in the left knee with a 1-2 pitch to put two runners on with nobody out. Brooks Lee hit a ball that looked destined for a double and at least one run, but Chourio covered a ton of ground and made a falling catch going straight toward the left corner, a truly excellent catch for the first out.
One pitch later, Ryan Kreidler popped out to Vaughn for the second out, but Gasser was again bitten by questionable control when he hit Martin with an 0-1 slider. With the bases loaded, Gasser looked tentative as he fell behind Jeffers 2-0. He worked it back even but after a couple of foul balls on 2-2, Jeffers took two balls in off the plate to draw an RBI walk. Gasser continued to yank the fastball too far inside against Lewis, who took three balls before Gasser found the zone. On 3-1, Lewis hit one to nearly the same spot that Lee had, but just a little further out of Chourio’s reach and over his head. Two runs scored and Minnesota was up 3-1. Bell grounded out to end the inning, but Gasser was off to a rough start on a night when the Brewers really needed length.
Bradley then came out with an emphatic shutdown inning, as he struck out Cooper Pratt, Joey Ortiz, and Turang. Gasser got Clemens to ground out on the first pitch of the third, but as if the Twins weren’t getting enough hits when crushing the ball, Keaschall followed with a bloop single to left. Keaschall appeared to get picked off with Culpepper at the plate, but Gasser was called for a balk on the play and Keaschall was awarded second. Keaschall, though, got a bit greedy, tried to steal third on the next pitch, and was thrown out by Contreras on what was as perfect a throw as you will ever see. Culpepper walked on the next pitch, but Lee popped out to Turang and the Twins were held scoreless in the third.
Chourio and Bauers became Bradley’s fourth and fifth straight strikeout victims to start the bottom of the third, and a Contreras fly out meant another quick, ineffective inning. In the top of the fourth, it was surprising to see David Hamilton in the field at third base in place of Ortiz (Sophia Minnaert later reported that Ortiz was removed with neck tightness). Kreidler led off with a solid single, but Martin followed by bouncing into a double play, started nicely by Pratt who had to deal with a tricky hop. With two outs and the bases empty, Jeffers struck out, and Gasser had a badly needed three-batter inning.
Mitchell led off the bottom of the fourth by hitting a hard line drive (107 mph) to center, but it was right to Kreidler for the first out. Vaughn’s line drive a couple pitches later did find the outfield grass, and the Brewers finally ended Bradley’s streak of ten straight batters retired. Yelich was next, and he got jammed on a ground ball but the Twins, with a big shift on Yelich, weren’t able to get him on a close play at first base. Pratt had a really nice at-bat with some really nice takes, but on the eighth pitch he flew out to center for the second out. Hamilton, in his first plate appearance of the night, also saw eight pitches and drew a walk to load the bases for the top of the order.
After a visit from his pitching coach, Bradley threw a 99 mph fastball on the inside corner that Turang was ready for. The Brewer second baseman dropped it into right field for a two-out, two RBI single that tied the game at three. Chourio grounded out on the first pitch he saw, but the game was back even, and crucially Bradley, who cruised through ten batters after his shaky start, had to throw 30 pitches and was up to 84 through four innings.
It was now up to Gasser to keep the momentum on the Brewers’ side. Lewis started the inning by hitting an 0-2 changeup out of the zone for a groundball single up the middle. Bell followed with a flyout to center, but with Clemens at the plate Lewis stole second base to put a runner in scoring position with one out. Gasser struck out Clemens for the second out, and with the right-handed Keaschall coming up and Gasser at 94 pitches, Pat Murphy opted for Chad Patrick to finish the inning off. He did so with a fly ball to right, and the book was closed on Gasser, who struggled a bit but managed to limit the damage to three runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Bradley was back in form in the fifth and got Bauers, Contreras, and Mitchell in order. In the top of the sixth, a first-pitch sinker from Patrick got away and hit Culpepper up near the shoulder, the second time he was hit by a pitch in the game. Lee just missed a two-run homer when he hit one to the warning track in right, but Bauers tracked it down for the first out. Trevor Larnach came on as a pinch-hitter for Kreidler, but he popped out harmlessly for the second out, and Patrick was out of the inning when Martin also popped out.
Travis Adams relieved Bradley in the bottom of the sixth and struck out Vaughn, Yelich, and Pratt in order. The Brewers turned to Abner Uribe in the seventh for the heart of the Twins’ order; he got a groundout from Jeffers and struck out Lewis, though with two outs Bell battled for a fantastic nine-pitch walk. His work was for naught, though, as Clemens grounded out to end the inning.
New pitcher Kody Funderburk, a lefty, got things started in the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout of Hamilton. Turang picked up his third hit of the game with a one-out single to center, giving the Brewers a baserunner for the first time since they’d tied the game in the fourth inning. After Chourio struck out on a hittable 2-2 fastball, Turang stole second with Bauers up (aided by a poor throw from Jeffers) but it didn’t matter when a strikeout ended the inning.
Keaschall lost a challenge on Aaron Ashby’s first pitch of the game in the top of the eighth, and one pitch later he grounded out to short. Culpepper struck out on a very close called strike three (it was a strike, but barely), and Lee struck out swinging in what was an encouragingly dominant inning for Ashby.
Against righty Jeff Hoffman, Contreras snuck a shallow fly ball in between Clemens and Keaschall in shallow center field for a leadoff single in the bottom of the eighth, and he was replaced by pinch-runner Brandon Lockridge. With Mitchell at the plate, Lockridge immediately paid off that decision and stole second base to give the Brewers their best scoring opportunity in four innings. Mitchell made the first out without advancing the runner when he hit a fly ball to shallow center, but on the next pitch, Vaughn pounded a single through the right side of the infield and Lockridge raced home ahead of the throw from Martin. The Brewers took a 4-3 lead. Vaughn, who’d moved up to second on Martin’s throw home, advanced to third on a Yelich groundout, but was stranded there when Pratt struck out.
Trevor Megill had to settle for a one-run lead in the ninth, and the Brewers made some further defensive adjustments, putting Luis Lara in right field and moving Bauers into Vaughn’s place at first. Trevor Larnach gave the Brewers a big scare on Megill’s second pitch, when he got a hold of a hanging curveball, but he didn’t quite get it on the sweet spot and Lara caught it on the warning track. Megill needed only two more pitches—four in total—to get Alan Roden to pop out in foul territory and Jeffers to fly out to center.
It was far from pretty and the offense was still sputtering, but the Brewers pulled this one out, giving themselves a chance to win the series behind Jacob Misiorowski on Sunday (and, on a day when the Cubs lost, restored their division lead to 5.5 games). Turang was the clear offensive star tonight: he went 3-for-4 with a run and two RBI, which came on the huge two-out game-tying hit in the fourth, and the Brewers’ only hit with his leadoff double. Vaughn also had a big night and the clutch hit that ended up winning the game.
Gasser was far from his best, but he managed to keep the Brewers in the game after escaping his near-disastrous second inning and settling down a bit after that. The bullpen was excellent: Patrick, Uribe, Ashby (who picked up his 13th win), and Megill combined for 4 1/3 innings of hitless ball, allowing only two baserunners via a Uribe walk and Patrick’s HBP.
The series wraps up tomorrow with Miz on the mound against the Twins’ Connor Prielipp, a Tomah, Wisconsin native. We’ll be here at 1:10 p.m.
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