Brewers Bounce Back to Beat the Mets

Jul 26, 2014; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Mark Reynolds (7) is welcomed back to the dugout by center fielder Carlos Gomez (27) after hitting a solo home run against the New York Mets during the sixth inning at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

The Brewers looked for redemption on Saturday after a heart-breaking, blown-save loss on Friday against the New York Mets.

They sent Wily Peralta (11-6, 3.58 ERA) to take on Jon Niese (5-5, 3.13) of the Mets.

It took a while for the Brewers, as Niese was strong for the first four innings of the game, but they finally broke through in the fifth and held on from there to take the game 5-2.

Both pitchers threw scoreless innings in the first and second innings. Daniel Murphy had a single in the first for the Mets and Chris Young and Niese drew walks in the second.

A Ryan Braun single was all the Brewers could manage in the first two innings of against Niese.

The Mets opened the scoring in the top of the third. Curtis Granderson doubled to lead off the inning.  Two batters later David Wright walked and Lucas Duda followed with a single to drive in Granderson.

Both Wright and Duda moved up a base on a wild pitch by Peralta but that is where they stayed after a fly out by Travis d’Arnaud and ground out by Chris Young.

The Brewers managed only a lead-off walk by Jean Segura in the bottom half of the inning.

Peralta picked up his first three-up, three-down inning of the game in the top of the fourth. The Brewers managed only a Rickie Weeks walk in the bottom half of the frame.

Granderson led off the bottom of the fifth with a wall-scraping home run (15) down the line in right. Murphy followed with a single, but was erased on a Wright double play grounder back to the mound.

Mark Reynolds lead off the bottom half of the frame with a bloop single to center. He was erased at second on a fielder’s choice ground out by Segura.

With Peralta trying to bunt, Segura stole second and advanced to third when Peralta flew out with two strikes. He came around to score on a wild pitch to put Milwaukee on the board.

Gomez followed with a two-out single and Jonathan Lucroy knocked with his 34th double of the season, with a shot to straight-away center and off the wall to score Gomez from first and tie the game.

Braun singled to right to bring in Lucory and give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead. The inning ended with an Aramis Ramirez fly out to center.

Peralta got d’Arnaud to fly out to center to lead off the top of the sixth, but Chris Young followed with a double.  After a Wilmer Flores ground out moved Young to third Bobby Abreu came on to pinch hit for Niese.

That prompted Ron Roenicke to call for Zack Duke out of the Brewer pen. The Mets countered by having Eric Campbell pinch-hit for Abreu and Duke struck him out.

The final line on Peralta was 5 2/3 innings pitched, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks. He struck out two.

Carlos Torres came on to pitch the bottom of the sixth for the Mets. The final line on Niese was five innings of work, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out four.

Torres got quick outs to Weeks and Khris Davis, but Reynolds took him deep (17) to give Milwaukee a 4-2 lead.  That home run tied Reynolds with Davis for the club lead.

Duke returned to the mound for the seventh inning. He struck out Eric Young Jr. to open the inning. He followed with a strike out of Granderson for the second out.

Murphy worked a walk after being down 0-2 to put a man on for the Mets and end the night for Duke. Roenicke called for Jeremy Jeffress. Duke faced four hitters, he struck out three and walked one.

Jeffress ended the inning with a Wright ground out to third to keep the Brewers on top 4-2.

Lyle Overbay, pinch-hitting for Jeffress, struck out to lead off the Brewers half of the seventh inning, still against Torres. Torres retired Gomez and Lucroy to end the inning.

Will Smith came on to toss the eighth for Milwaukee. He struck out Duda to open the inning and followed by striking out d’Arnaud. Chris Young doubled to left to put a Met on but Smith came back to strike out Flores to end the inning.

Torres went back out for the eighth inning for the Mets, his third inning of work. He put down Braun and Ramirez to start the inning before a Weeks singled to center to put a man on.

Davis followed with a double off the wall in center to bring in Weeks.  There was a play at the plate but Weeks beat the throw to extend the lead to 5-2. Davis took third on the throw.

Reynolds followed with a high chopper to third, Wright fired to first but the umpire ruled that Duda’s foot was off the bag and Davis scored. The Mets challenged the call. The replay showed that Duda’s foot was on the bag and Reynolds was called out, meaning Davis’s run didn’t count.

Francisco Rodriguez came out to pitch the ninth for Milwaukee, looking to make up for last night’s outing when he gave up three runs and blew the save before recording an out.

Rogriguez opened the inning with a whiff of pinch-hitter Juan Lagares. Eric Young Jr followed with a double to right to put a Met in scoring position. K-Rod struck out Granderson for the second out. Murphy flew out to Braun to end the game.

Peralta earned the win for Milwaukee, Niese the loss for the Mets. K-Rod picked up the save for Milwaukee.

The Brewers bullpen threw 3 1/3 innings and struck out an impressive 8 batters in that span.

The Crew didn’t gain any ground in the division as the Cardinals and Reds both won earlier in the day.