The comeback Crew! Brewers feed off fans' energy to pull off stunner
MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers are still the only team in Major League Baseball that hasn't suffered a four-game losing streak, and it took their biggest comeback in 20 years to keep it that way.
Down eight runs by the middle of the third inning and still down three in the eighth, the Brewers rallied for a 10-9 win over the D-backs at American Family Field, avoiding a four-game sweep and putting the National League Central champs back on track after a post-clinch slump.
The Brewers' eight-run comeback in a win was their biggest since they erased a nine-run deficit on April 28, 2004, against the Reds. And it tied for the biggest stunner of this MLB season with the Padres, who came back from eight down on April 8 against the Cubs, and the Royals, who did it June 7 against the Mariners.
“That was insane,” said Willy Adames, who declined an offer to take off the second half of the game with the Brewers down big, and wound up right in the middle of Milwaukee’s four-run eighth after hitting an RBI double in the seventh.
“It was nice to see we didn’t roll over,” said Rhys Hoskins. “We totally could have. That’s a good team over there.”
There were numerous claims of forecasting a comeback. Hoskins said he heard it from third-base coach Jason Lane. Adames said it was associate manager Rickie Weeks who kept saying, “We’re going to win this game.”
“And after the third inning, I don’t know. Something changed,” Adames said. “The energy changed.”
Manager Pat Murphy believes that something came from a crowd of 37,612, many of them angsty after the Brewers, coming off Wednesday’s division clinch, scored five total runs while losing three in a row to the D-backs. Making matters worse, Arizona is a potential NL Wild Card Series foe for the second straight season.
So, as starter Frankie Montas was falling into an 8-0 deficit during a seven-run third inning he couldn’t escape, the fans booed. That didn’t happen much this season while Milwaukee ran away with the NL Central.
“When they started booing -- albeit, they should have -- I think it woke the guys up,” Murphy said. “Like, ‘We have a responsibility. We have taken our foot off the gas.’ … It’s a tribute to these guys that maybe they want to be the last man standing.”
Adames led the comeback with three hits and Hoskins, Jackson Chourio, Blake Perkins, Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick all chipped in multiple hits to bail out Montas, who lasted 2 2/3 innings and was charged with eight runs (seven earned) on six hits including a trio of home runs.
Before Sunday, he had a 3.55 ERA in his first nine Brewers starts to put himself in the conversation to start Game 2 of a playoff series behind Freddy Peralta.
First in relief was left-hander Aaron Ashby, was only pitching in an 8-0 game because the Brewers have scripted bullpen work for what remains of the regular season.
“It’s still early at that point,” Ashby said. “Pitching right there isn’t any less important than coming into a tie game. So, 'let’s come in and put up as many zeroes as we can.'"
That’s what they did. Ashby (1 1/3 innings, four strikeouts), DL Hall (two innings, no hits) and Joel Payamps (one inning, two strikeouts) followed with scoreless outings to allow Milwaukee hitters to chip away at the deficit with one run in the third inning, two in the fourth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh.
It was a 9-6 game in the bottom of the eighth when Chourio, the Brewers’ rookie sensation, started everything with a two-out walk.
“It’s been the story all season: two-out runs, again,” said Mitchell.
Against D-backs relievers Joe Mantiply and Justin Martinez (with his triple-digit fastball), Chourio’s walk started a stretch of six straight hitters reaching safely. Mitchell, a mid-game replacement, knocked an RBI single off Mantiply and Hoskins greeted Martinez with a game-tying, two-run single.
Then Adames’ double pushed the go-ahead runner to third for pinch-hitter Jake Bauers, who hit a tapper to the middle of the infield for a go-ahead single and the Brewers’ first lead of the entire series.
It was Bauers who delivered the walk-off hit for the Brewers five days earlier on the night Milwaukee clinched the NL Central and still had its sights on one of the top two seeds in the NL.
Those hopes faded over the next three nights, but Sunday provided a renewed spark as the once-booing crowd grew louder and louder, culminating with Devin Williams’ game-ending strikeout for his 13th save.
“You feel the snowball effect of it getting a little bit louder with each run that’s scored,” Hoskins said. “Not only do we feel that, but the opposing team does as well. Any type of energy from the crowd is good. Obviously, we don’t want it to be boos, but sometimes you need a little kick in the butt.”