'All-conference slider': Taylor's acrobatics send Crew to series win

MILWAUKEE -- William Contreras, Tyrone Taylor and the Brewers slid one game closer to their goal of winning the National League Central.

Acrobatic slides by Contreras and Taylor turned into runs for the Crew in a 4-2 victory over electric rookie pitcher Eury Pérez and the Marlins at American Family Field on Thursday afternoon, as Milwaukee extended its lead in the NL Central to 4 1/2 games over idle Chicago.

• Games remaining: vs. WAS (3), at STL (4), at MIA (3), vs. STL (3), vs. CHC (3)
• Standings update: The Brewers (82-64) hold a 4 1/2-game lead over the Cubs (78-69) for first place in the NL Central. Milwaukee is the third-best division leader, meaning it would host a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series against the final Wild Card entrant starting on Oct. 3.
• Magic number: The Brewers' magic number over the Cubs to clinch the NL Central is 12.

Taylor led the way with two hits and two RBIs while filling in for left fielder Christian Yelich, who said he hopes to return from a bout of back stiffness when the Brewers open a series against the Nationals at home on Friday night. Yelich has missed the past six games, but Milwaukee keeps winning, including taking three of four from a contending Miami team while allowing just five runs over those four games.

“On any given day, you don’t know who it’s going to be to clutch-up for us,” Taylor said. “We have such a good pitching staff that whenever we score, shoot, just a couple of runs, we have a good chance of going out there [and winning].”

The Brewers need to keep winning to claim the division crown. They have 16 games remaining and the Cubs have 15. The teams finish the season with a three-game series in Milwaukee.

The Brewers got back to full strength in their starting rotation on Thursday with the return of Adrian Houser, who allowed two runs on five hits over five effective innings in his first outing coming off a minor elbow issue. He fell into a 2-1 deficit in the top of the fifth inning before Milwaukee answered with two runs against the 20-year-old, 6-foot-8 Pérez, who became the youngest starting pitcher to reach 100 career strikeouts since the late Miami right-hander José Fernández in 2013.

The Brewers came away impressed. Manager Craig Counsell called Pérez the best young pitcher Milwaukee has faced all season.

“You see how tall he is from the dugout. Then I got into the batter's box, and I was like, ‘Holy crap, man. This guy's a monster up there!’” Taylor said. “It felt like he was releasing the ball from home plate. I knew it was going to be a battle for us as a whole, and I think we did a great job."

Taylor tied the game at 2 in the fifth with the first of his two RBI doubles, then scored on Sal Frelick’s two-out single to right field. The throw home beat Taylor by several steps, but he avoided the tag with an acrobatic slide, slipping his right hand over home plate to score the go-ahead run. He was initially called out, but Milwaukee challenged and won.

“I’ve been teasing Tyrone that he’s an all-conference slider,” Counsell said. “He’s just really good at it. Great body control. This series, he’s had two great slides where it takes a great slide to be safe. Today, it’s very rare that a player has to go to the inside part of the plate like that, and it was just a great adjustment by Tyrone -- and a good send by [third-base coach Jason Lane] to be aggressive there with two outs.”

The Brewers practice sliding in Spring Training, but it’s hard to practice that kind of play.

At that moment, Taylor simply saw the plate and went for it.

“I think it’s all instinctual,” Taylor said. “It’s nothing I really think about.”

It was the second notable slide in the game for the Brewers, who also saw Contreras tag from second base and half slide, half roll into third in the fourth inning. That put him in place to score on Rowdy Tellez’s sacrifice fly.

“William is kind of a sneaky-good baserunner,” Counsell said. “His instincts on the bases are very, very good, and he’s shown that multiple times. That was just a great decision.”

By taking three of four from the Marlins and winning for the 11th time in their past 13 home games, the Brewers are back to 18 games over .500, matching their season high.

“The thought going in was that these are two teams that pitch very well and runs are going to be at a premium,” said Counsell, whose club managed to buck that expectation in a 12-0 opener win before pitching took over for both sides over the ensuing three games. “Our staff did a really nice job, and they navigated it really well. You have to be pleased that we gave up just five runs. That’s a great series.”

Said Houser: “It feels like we’re all getting healthy and everybody’s feeling good. We’ve had some good starts from [Corbin] Burnes and [Brandon Woodruff] to really refresh the bullpen on this long run. I think everybody is getting to where they want to be.”