Philadelphia 2, Milwaukee 0: Peralta Throws Five Scoreless, But Milwaukee Bats Go Silent With RISP

[Michael Trzinski]

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

On a chilly early September afternoon, a start that had even Front Row Amy bundled up, a pair of elite pitchers met at Uecker Field in Game 3 of the Philadelphia-Milwaukee series. In a matchup of opposing styles, Fastball Freddy Peralta took on Phillies southpaw Ranger Suárez, who employs the ‘slow, slower, and slowest’ technique of pitching to enemy batters. Burly Brellenthin, a 100-year-old World War II vet, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to a nice round of applause from an appreciative crowd.   

Both pitchers kept the game scoreless through three, but Peralta struggled a bit in the top of the fourth. Bryce Harper walked, and J.T. Realmuto dumped a parachute shot into short right, which had been vacated when Andruw Monasterio covered second on a Harper steal attempt. Peralta got two quick strikeouts of Brandon Marsh and Harrison Bader, but issued his third free pass of the game to Max Kepler. On his 31^st pitch of the inning, Peralta struck out Alex Bohm to end the scoring threat.

Suárez ran into trouble in the home half, giving up solid line drive singles to Andrew Vaughn and Caleb Durbin. The Brewers went meekly after that, with Danny Jansen bunting into a force play at third, while Monasterio popped to short and Blake Perkins looked at a called strike three to keep the contest scoreless.

Peralta left after five innings (and 92 pitches), allowing two hits and three walks while whiffing eight. He extended his scoreless streak to 29 innings with a solid effort. Aaron Ashby came on in relief in the top of the sixth inning and got two groundouts to third and a strikeout to keep the Phils off the scoreboard.

The Crew had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the sixth when William Contreras walked and Vaughn hit a one-hop double off the wall in left-center. The ‘gold’ turned into iron pyrite after two groundouts and a flyout to medium center ended the frame. Suárez left after six innings, allowing six hits and two walks while striking out a quartet of Brewers.

With one out in the Phillies' seventh, Bohm lined a ball to right off reliever Tobias Myers that went past a diving Isaac Collins and into the corner as Bohm coasted into third. The Brewers moved the infield in, and Vaughn made a nice backhand play on Bryson Stott for the second out, keeping the runner at third. Pesky Trea Turner lined a shin-high splitter over a leaping Joey Ortiz to give the Phils a 1-0 lead. Rob Zastryzny came and promptly wild-pitched Turner to second, but got Kyle Schwarber to roll to second to keep the deficit at one.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom half of the eighth, Vaughn lined a two-out single to right off gangly lefthander Matt Strahm. Jake Bauers came in to pinch-run and advanced all the way to third when Realmuto couldn’t handle a pitch in the dirt and then airmailed the throw to second. Unfortunately, Durbin skied to center to end the inning.

Beleaguered reliever Joel Payamps came on in the ninth and gave up a double to Bader past a diving Durbin at third. Payamps got a groundout and a strikeout, but Stott lined a low inside pitch to right that went to the wall, scoring Bader for a 2-0 lead as Stott collected a two-base hit.

That brought in Phillies closer Jhoan Duran and his triple-digit fastball for the save opportunity. With one out, Monasterio drilled a ball to deep left-center, but Bader leapt and caught the ball as he crashed into the wall for the second out, robbing an extra-base hit. Pinch-hitter Sal Frelick struck out to end the game.

Suárez notched his 11^th win while Duran picked up his 26^th save. Myers took the loss. Both teams left eight runners on base, but Milwaukee was 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The Brewers had runners on first and second with nobody out in both the fourth and the sixth, but were unable to score. One piece of good news for Milwaukee was the performance of Vaughn, who went 3-for-4 with a double. Vaughn had batted only .161 (5-for-31) over the last ten days. Durbin also had a pair of hits.

"We left runners on base," manager Pat Murphy said after the game. "We didn't get the big hit."

The Brewers have a 5.5 game lead over the idle Cubs and will head to PNC Park for a three-game set with NL Central rival Pittsburgh.

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