Article: Brewers 7, White Sox 3: Consider The Sox Swept

[Jason Wang]

A productive offense and a scoreless quality start by Freddy Peralta allowed the Brewers to do something that they hadn't accomplished in 37 years.

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Freddy Peralta - 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 103 pitches, 65 strikes (63.1%)
Home Runs: Carlos Santana (15)
Top 3 WPA: Freddy Peralta (.366), Willy Adames (.122), Abner Uribe (.080) 
Bottom 3 WPA: Tyrone Taylor (-.090), William Contreras (-.083), Brice Turang (-.076) 

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Peralta Pitches Six Shutout Innings
In another quality start, Freddy Peralta gave up a total of seven baserunners but no runs, as he blew the ball past the White Sox lineup. He earned 18 swings and misses, 10 of which were from his four-seam fastball and seven of which were from his slider. He was utilizing the high fastball particularly well.

Perhaps more impressive, he was never truly in trouble. The only innings in which he allowed more than one baserunner were the fourth and fifth. Through intelligent pitching and a display of his brilliant stuff, Peralta prevented the White Sox from having any sort of offensive rally through six frames.

Crew Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop Hitting
The Brewers were able to bring home runners in four separate innings. Mark Canha broke the seal in the second inning with a sacrifice fly, after back-to-back singles by Sal Frelick and Willy Adames. In the fifth, Andruw Monasterio slapped an RBI double to left field to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

While Milwaukee maintained a 2-0 lead heading into the eighth inning, they tacked on three insurance runs thanks to a massive home run by Carlos Santana to center field to widen the lead to a comfortable 5-0.

Finally, Christian Yelich hit a totally unnecessary (but still very impressive) two-run single in the ninth inning to crush any remaining comeback hopes for the White Sox.

Mejia (Almost) Mucks It Up
After another routine day for one of the best bullpens in baseball, J.C. Mejia dusted off his glove and entered the game for the first time since August 6. With a 7-0 lead and just three outs left to secure a series sweep, Mejia took the mound.

A single by Andrew Vaughn and a subsequent wild pitch put a runner in scoring position right away. Mejia got two quick outs, but a double by Carlos Perez brought Vaughn home to score the first White Sox run. Zach Remillard then hit a single to place runners on the corners, and advanced to second base on defensive indifference. After a two-run single by Elvis Andrus, things seemed to be falling apart at the seams.

Luckily, Andrew Benintendi lined out to end the game, allowing the Brewers to sweep the White Sox for the first time since April of 1986. 

What’s Next? 
The Brewers will have a day off, before facing off against the Los Angeles Dodgers behind enemy lines. To kick things off, we’ll see a pitching matchup of Adrian Houser against Bobby Miller. With this win, the Brewers extended their division lead to 3.5 games over the Chicago Cubs and 4.0 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Williams	9	0	14	15	0	38
Payamps	18	0	18	0	0	36
Milner	18	0	0	17	0	35
Mejia	0	0	0	0	30	30
Uribe	8	0	10	0	10	28
Peguero	0	0	21	4	0	25
Chafin	0	0	0	0	15	15
B Wilson	14	0	0	0	0	14

Tweet Highlight

 

View full article