Brewers on the wrong side of Judge's HR tear

MILWAUKEE -- This wasn’t the first time the Brewers have been unwilling participants in a chase for home run history.

Aaron Judge slugged home runs Nos. 58 and 59 in the Brewers' 12-8 loss to the Yankees on Sunday at American Family Field, as New York slugged five home runs to Milwaukee’s three and avoided being swept. Judge’s lofty shots off Brewers starter Jason Alexander in the third inning and reliever Luis Perdomo in the seventh left him one homer shy of being the first Major Leaguer to hit 60 home runs in a season since Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa in 2001, and two shy of Roger Maris’ 61-year-old American League record of 61 home runs.

“This is his moment right now,” said Perdomo, who threw a two-strike slider right down the middle and held his head in his hands when Judge launched it 443 feet toward Bernie Brewer’s slide in left field. “When you make a mistake against him, he’s going to take advantage of it.”

Longtime season-ticket holders among Sunday’s crowd will remember that the Brewers have been in similar situations before.

In 2001, Bonds hit four of his record 73 home runs off Brewers pitching in eight starts against them, and Sosa hit eight of his 64 homers that season at the Brewers’ expense.

Three years earlier, during the Brewers’ first season in the National League, Milwaukee County Stadium was a main stage as Sosa and Mark McGwire aimed to break Maris’ mark, which at the time was the MLB record. Sosa hit more home runs that season against the Brewers (12) than any other team. He hit six of them in September alone, including No. 60 at Wrigley Field on Sept. 12 and a pair of two-homer games. As noted by a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about the '98 home run race, Sosa hit Nos. 64 and 65 in Milwaukee on Sept. 23 and proclaimed of the Brewers, “This is my lucky team.”

McGwire hit four homers against the Brewers that year including his own Nos. 64 and 65 in September at County Stadium and nearly No. 66 -- only to have that taken away when umpire Bob Davidson ruled fan interference.

Now, it was Judge’s turn to go deep, and after going homerless as the Brewers took the first two games of the series, he nearly got all the way from 57 to 60 on Sunday.

Yankees hitters extended the ninth inning to give Judge one crack at that round number, and Brewers reliever Trevor Kelley served up a breaking ball to drive. Judge settled for a two-run double that bounced off the wall in left field to finish a four-hit, four-RBI afternoon.

"You have to come with your best stuff against him," Alexander said. "I felt like I made some good pitches, and it's tough when you can paint one on the outside and he still puts it 110 [mph] into the stands. It's a really thin margin of error."

The Brewers didn’t go quietly. They got an early three-run home run in all three games of the series; Willy Adames hit one in each of the Brewers’ victories on Friday and Saturday before Kolten Wong took Yankees starter Gerrit Cole deep in the first inning for the first of Milwaukee’s three home runs in the series finale. But it was a mix of defense and buzzard’s luck, and not home runs, that led to a 4-3 Brewers lead slipping away during New York’s four-run rally in the fifth.

With the bases loaded, one out and Justin Topa pitching, Giancaro Stanton rocketed a 97.1 mph one-hopper to third baseman Luis Urías’ left. Fielded cleanly, it’s a potential inning-ending, lead-saving double play. Instead, Urías got a glove on it but bobbled the baseball twice before flipping to Wong at second base, where his foot appeared to be off the bag. Everyone was safe while the tying run scored, and the Yankees made it a four-run inning with a broken-bat single and a two-run base hit off Brent Suter.

“That's the inning when the game kind of turned,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.

With the loss, the Brewers fell two games out of the final National League Wild Card spot. While they keep chasing October, they’ll keep an eye on Judge’s chase of Maris.

"It’s good for the game,” Suter said. “He’s what you want kids to emulate. He’s a big-time role model, just the way he goes about his business on and off the field. He’s an incredible talent. It’s insane. I think he hit five balls today all over 100 mph.

“He’s just a really special talent, and honestly, I wish him well. I hope he breaks the Yankee record. I just didn’t want to see him hit a couple against us today.”