Brewers 4, Orioles 3: Wiemer Walks It Off

Box Score

Starting Pitcher: Freddy Peralta - 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 98 pitches, 63 strikes (64.3%)
Home Runs: None
Top 3 WPA: Brice Turang (.264), Blake Perkins (.208), Christian Yelich (.188) 
Bottom 3 WPA: William Contreras (-.170), Owen Miller (-.160), Joel Payamps (-.141) 

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

Peralta Digs Deep To Strike Out Nine
Freddy Peralta didn’t have an easy start against the Orioles, throwing almost 100 pitches in just five innings of work. His pitch counts per inning were as follows:

A brutal second and third inning required some elbow grease, but he was able to get nine strikeouts and keep the Orioles to just two earned runs, both of which came during his Herculean effort in the second inning. He gave up a leadoff double to Austin Hays, followed by a home run by Yankees legend Aaron Hicks, but was lights-out for the remainder of his start.

Despite his heavy workload, he was still able to show flashes of his 2021 All-Star self. He didn't issue any walks in his start and didn’t have a decrease in velocity. Toward the end of the fifth inning, his four-seam fastball was still around 95 mph. His last pitch, a swinging strike to Jorge Mateo, was actually his second fastest of the game, coming in at 96.6 mph.

Peralta currently has a 4.55 ERA and a WHIP of 1.39 over 65 1/3 innings pitched. 

Bullpen Assembles The Dream Team
The combined efforts of five relief pitchers held the Baltimore Orioles to just two hits, one walk, and just one earned run over the final five innings of the game. The lone run came by way of Joel Payamps, who gave Ryan O’Hearn his third home run of the season and the Orioles a brief 3-2 lead in the seventh. 

Peter Strzelecki was called upon in the 10th inning and kept it scoreless, striking out Mateo and getting Adam Frazier to flyout to earn the first two outs. After Adley Rutschman was intentionally walked, he struck out Josh Lester to give the Brewers the chance they needed to eventually win the game.

Finally, Some Good Timely Hitting
The Brewers started off with more offense in the first inning than they had in the entire final game of their series against the Cincinnati Reds. Christian Yelich led off with a double, and William Contreras followed with a walk. Brian Anderson hit a single that scored Yelich and allowed Contreras to move to third, whence he eventually scored on an Abraham Toro single. Luis Urias would load the bases after being hit by a pitch, but Brice Turang struck out to put a stop to the offensive threat. Heading into the second inning, the Brewers already had a 2-0 lead.

They’d return in the eighth inning, A Blake Perkins leadoff walk and prompt steal of second base positioned him to score on a Turang single. That tied the game at 3-3 and after a scoreless ninth inning, we moved into extras.

With Anderson starting on second base and Urias on first after walking, Joey Wiemer stepped up to the plate. With two outs on the board and the game in his hands, he struck a ball to left field that ended as a base hit, allowing Anderson to score the walk-off run.

What’s Next? 
The homestand continues with Corbin Burnes taking on Dean Kremer in the second game of the series against Baltimore. With Tuesday’s win, the Brewers have reclaimed the lead in the NL Central over the Pittsburgh Pirates by 0.5 games. 

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