Adames leads way in Crew's (mostly) smooth finale victory

MILWAUKEE -- Rickie Weeks’ unofficial managerial debut -- the Brewers’ 7-1 win over the Rays will be reflected on Pat Murphy’s record even though Milwaukee’s skipper began a two-game suspension Wednesday -- was mostly a breeze relative to recent games at American Family Field.

But the homestand couldn’t end without one final, benign dose of drama.

Willy Adames homered twice while driving in four runs for the second straight game, William Contreras started the month of May where he left off in April with a two-run double and Colin Rea delivered six scoreless innings for the Brewers, who were this close to a clean victory before reliever Thyago Vieira saw his glove confiscated by the umpires because of its color scheme as he entered the game to pitch the ninth inning.

While Vieira procured a new glove and completed his warmups, crew chief Chris Guccione came over from third base for a discussion with injured Brewers closer Devin Williams at the dugout rail. But play resumed, Vieira dispatched the Rays in order on nine pitches, and the Brewers celebrated their first game of the season under an open American Family Field dome by improving to a Major League-best 11-3 in home games.

For a wild homestand to end in that fashion, it almost made Weeks chuckle.

“Honestly, I didn’t want to, but I did want to at the same time just because of what transpired the past few days,” Weeks said. “We have a great bunch of guys in that clubhouse. We talked internally about how we can hold our emotion together and still play our brand of baseball.”

“In the game of baseball,” Adames said, “there’s something new every day, something you’re not expecting to happen. You just have to ride with it, you know?”

The Brewers even got an inning from Abner Uribe, who was one of three uniformed Brewers -- with Murphy and Freddy Peralta -- who drew suspensions and undisclosed fines just before game time following their ejections the night before. Uribe, who was suspended six games for his role in clearing the benches in the eighth inning on Tuesday, appealed his suspension, meaning he was available to pitch.

He threw strikes for only 11 of 25 pitches with a run-scoring wild pitch mixed in, and needed a slick scoop from first baseman Jake Bauers on the inning-ending out, but Uribe carried a 7-1 Brewers lead to the bottom of the eighth.

Peralta, suspended five games, also appealed, while Murphy elected to begin serving his two-game suspension and handed the helm to associate manager Weeks.

“Rickie did amazing,” Adames said. “The game was easy today.”

Adames had a lot to do with that, becoming the first Brewers player in five years (since Tyler Saladino in 2019) and the first shortstop in Brewers history to drive in four or more runs in consecutive games. The big blow was his three-run homer in Milwaukee’s four-run seventh inning against Rays starter Erasmo Ramírez.

By then, Rea had worked around baserunners in each of the right-hander’s six innings, including runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth. Rea is as quiet and unflappable a pitcher as there is, and it was mostly that kind of day.

It was a change from the previous three games, which featured a disputed non-call involving Aaron Judge in a loss to the Yankees on Sunday, a tying passed ball that was wiped away in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 1-0 loss to the Rays on Monday, then a Brewers win on Tuesday twice interrupted by ejections.

“I think it’s just one of those things where we have to kind of take a step back and control our emotions a little bit more,” Rea said. “At the same time, it’s an emotional game. We want to go out there and win every single pitch. We’re competing out there.”

The Brewers can cool off on Thursday’s off-day before a big series against Craig Counsell’s Cubs at Wrigley Field this weekend.

It’s the first meeting between the NL Central’s current top two teams.

“It’s a big series because of the whole hoopla, I guess you could say,” Weeks said. “But again, we’re a month in and we have five more months left in the season. We want to win the division and they’re right there with us, but I wouldn’t put too much into it.”

“We’re not afraid,” Adames said. “We’re going to go out there and compete and do what we need to do to win the game. We’re hungry. We want to win.”