Williams closes it out for Teheran with clutch save

MILWAUKEE -- Once again, Julio Teheran was brilliant at the start. And this time, Devin Williams got the job done at the end.

The Brewers snapped a six-game losing streak and reclaimed the top spot in a tightly packed National League Central with six quality innings from the resurgent Teheran and a high-pressure save from Williams, who bounced back from his first blown save of the season by stranding the bases loaded at the end of Friday night’s 5-4 win over the Pirates at American Family Field.

“It’s huge,” said Williams, “just to get back on the winning trail and get back into first place.”

Outfielder Blake Perkins drove in a pair of runs in a three-run first inning and Joey Wiemer homered as Teheran and the Brewers carried a lead into the late innings that had whittled to one run by the time Williams took the mound in the ninth.

In his previous outing three nights earlier in Minneapolis, Williams surrendered four runs and a two-run lead without recording an out, and again this time, he lacked his sharpest stuff.

An inconsistent workload hasn’t helped; Williams has pitched six times in June after only seven appearances in the entirety of May. Or, maybe it’s the “ups and downs” every player faces in a season, Williams said.

“The stuff doesn’t feel [like usual] right now,” he said. “[I'm] working through it. That’s all I can do. … I go out there and I’m expected to be locked in from the first pitch and that doesn’t always happen. You have to work through stuff sometimes.”

He had to work through a lot during this ninth inning after Pittsburgh’s Jack Suwinski took a one-out walk and Josh Palacios drove a changeup away for a double that put the potential tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position.

But Williams refused to yield.

Williams struck out Ke’Bryan Hayes, then worked carefully around speedy left-handed hitter Ji Hwan Bae -- who walked -- to instead face the right-handed Jason Delay with the bases loaded.

Delay struck out on three pitches -- a changeup down in the zone for a called strike one, a fastball up and away for a half-hearted swing and strike two, and a changeup in off the plate for a swinging strike three.

The Brewers’ six-game losing streak was history.

“That inning is just a great example of why Devin is really great at his job,” Counsell said. “They got some base hits and he’s in a tough situation with second and third, and he’s completely composed and makes great pitches.

“That’s why he’s such a good closer. You’re going to have those situations. The emotions get going, the other team has some momentum and some energy and you still make big pitches.”

Williams needed the escape to preserve a deserved victory for Teheran, who finally got to experience what it feels like to pitch for the Brewers with some run support.

Before Friday’s outing -- six innings, one hit (a Carlos Santana home run), two earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts and a heavier dose of changeups than usual -- Teheran had seen precious little support. In the first four games he started, the Brewers managed to score no runs, four runs, no runs and one run.

On Friday, they took what Pirates starter Rich Hill gave them. Hill found the strike zone with only nine of his first 25 pitches in a 36-pitch first inning, walking Brian Anderson with the bases loaded for the game’s first run before right fielder Perkins delivered a two-run single.

“It was fun to go out there with a lead,” Teheran said.

Perkins also contributed on defense with an outfield assist in the seventh inning as the Pirates trimmed a 5-2 Brewers lead to 5-4. On the back end of that play was a deft tag from third baseman Luis Urías, who’d already made the play of the night on an Andrew McCutchen ground ball back in the fourth.

The latter play helped keep the night cruising along for Teheran, who has been a revelation in his first Major League action since April 2021. Through five Brewers starts beginning May 25, he has yet to surrender more than two runs in a game. He owns a 1.78 ERA, a .202 opponents’ average and a 0.82 WHIP.

“That’s as much as you can ask from any starter in the league, the way he’s thrown in his five starts,” Counsell said. “He’s absolutely delivered. He’s so smart out there.”