Brewer Daily News for July 3rd: Peralta leaves early, Crew blanks Nats

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Wednesday edition of Brewer Daily News. In yesterday’s game, Milwaukee Brewers’ starting pitcher Wily Peralta left in midway in the sixth after feeling some pain with a tight left hamstring. Secondly, the Brewers (33-49) snapped their losing streak as they beat the Washington Nationals (42-41) last night.

Despite ily Peralta’s struggles this season, the Brewers can’t afford another injury. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Peralta’s start in last night’s game came to an abrupt stop, something that fans, and Wily himself, weren’t happy to see. In the sixth inning, Peralta left the game despite having a 2-2 count on Nationals’ third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. Manager Ron Roenicke clearly saw something wrong with the righty as he and the athletic trainer ran out during the at-bat. After a diagnosis, Peralta has a left hamstring strain and it’s unknown how long he will be out.

In his start however, Peralta was efficient, but did not receive a decision. Peralta only had 80 pitches in his 5 1/3 innings pitched with no runs allowed, three hits, two walks and five strikeouts. With the shutouts innings, Peralta also lowered his ERA from 5.58 to 5.27

However, Peralta’s innings were just what the Brewers needed as they went on to beat the Nationals 4-0. After Peralta was taken out of the game, John Axford took over and finished out the sixth inning while allowing only one walk. Jim Henderson pitched in the seventh and allowed one hit and ultimately picked up his third win of the season.

Stephen Strasburg started for the Nats and pitched well, but did not receive a decision. Strasburg pitched seven innings of shut out baseball while allowing three hits, four walks and eight strikeouts. Drew Storen took over in the eighth was absolutely lit up, surrendering all four runs to Milwaukee. Storen was charged with his second loss of the season.

The offense didn’t get going until the eighth inning when the Brew Crew exploded for their four runs. Juan Francisco hit a double that drove in Logan Schafer and Rickie Weeks. Soon after that, Martin Maldonado hit a deep double to left that scored Francisco. Jeff Bianchi also contributed to the offense with a single that scored Maldonado.

Tonight the Brewers play in game three of the series against the Nats at 6:05 p.m. ET / 5:05 p.m. CT. The projected starters are Kyle Lohse (3-6, 3.63 ERA) for Milwaukee and Ross Detwiler (2-6, 4.13 ERA) for Washington.