CINCINNATI — The Milwaukee Brewers are back in sole possession of first place in the National League Central Division.
With another stellar pitching performance and solo home runs from Christian Yelich, William Contreras and Owen Miller, the Brewers defeated the Cincinnati Reds for the third straight year – this time 3-0 on Saturday night at Great American Ball Park.
Freddy Peralta started and threw his best six innings of the season, then the usual back-end triumvirate of Elvis Peguero, Joel Payamps and Devin Williams took care of the rest.
The foursome limited the Reds to a single hit, a broken-bat special in the fourth inning.
As a result, the Brewers (51-42) took a one-game lead over the Reds (50-43) in Central standings while also winning the season series, a key to potential tiebreak scenarios in the future.
“We have enough games against them where we want more wins,” said manager Craig Counsell. “I think after going through that last year and understanding that the two teams that we ended up chasing had lost the season series to (both of them). When you’re in the last week of September, that’s not a good feeling.”
“So if this is one of the teams we’re going to fight with, then knowing we’ve already done that makes your lead an extra game.”
“It’s big business.”
Box Score: Brewers 3, Reds 0
How good was Milwaukee’s pitching against Cincinnati during this period?
The Reds haven’t scored in three straight games against the Brewers — Cincinnati’s longest goalless streak in over four years — while also notching just seven and scoring 44 goals.
Milwaukee has recorded three consecutive shutouts in franchise history, the most recent being on July 19-21 against the Miami Marlins at what was then Miller Park.
Christian Yelich opens with a bang
After a rain delay of 1 hour and 16 minutes to go, Yelich sent rookie Andrew Abbott’s first shot just over the wall in left field and quickly gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead.
It was the eighth leadoff home run of Yelich’s career and fourth of the season.
Abbott rebounded by retiring eight of the next nine batsmen before Contreras followed his lead, hitting a home run to the right in the fourth set to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead — a shot that potentially prevented the Brewers from taking one third game in a row by a margin to win 1-0 score.
Abbott was withdrawn after six innings and after allowing the two solo homers — ultimately a questionable move by manager David Bell, despite Abbott’s pitch count being 90.
Buck Farmer replaced Abbott, and two pitches into the seventh round, Miller hit a home run into the second deck and made it a three-run game.
The Brewers scored just seven goals total and once again struggled to get anything together.
“We didn’t get the next hit, which would have been nice,” Counsell said.
Freddy Peralta was great
Eventually, the right-hander was able to avoid the big inning.
Peralta started well, spinning through six shutout innings and the only hit he conceded was a broken-bat infield hit on Jake Fraley, with an out in the fourth.
And as for the near miss department, it seemed like Peralta hit Fraley a pitch early, only to see home plate umpire Brian O’Nora look away to search for a ball.
“I knew it was a strike, but there’s nothing I can do after that. Just keep going,” Peralta said. “I took my next pitch and he made contact with the ball and was able to reach base. I didn’t think about it, but later in the game I thought, ‘That was the first shot.’
“I was just thinking about the good line-up I’ve got ahead of me and how important this series is for us.”
Cincinnati only managed two other baserunners against him – both by walks – and he was eliminated after 93 pitches with six strikeouts.
“I made sure he was aggressive throughout,” Contreras said through interpreter Carlos Brizuela. For his part, Peralta praised Contreras for a good game.
“And today we’ve used the move a little more than in the past and I don’t think they were hoping for that,” Contreras continued. “It worked and he did a good job throwing strikes.”
Peralta’s only other shutout performance came in his first start of the season, when he outplayed the New York Mets for six innings at American Family Field.
“We pitched exceptionally well again and Freddy was great tonight,” said Counsell. “Actually no threats, just a maximum of one baserunner (in one inning). His fastball was really good and made everything else in Zone a heap.
“They are really competitive and that slowed them down. When he does that, combining all the shots is really hard for batsmen.”
A terrific defensive play by Andruw Monasterio at third base eliminated Elly De La Cruz from the finals and earned Williams the 22nd save of the season and the 25th one-hitter in franchise history.
The bullpen was absolutely fine
First it was Wade Miley with six innings on Sunday. Then it was Corbin Burnes with six on Friday, followed by Peralta’s six in that game.
The bullpen recipe was the same each time: Peguero took seventh, Payamps eighth, and Williams ninth.
Payamps now has 18 team-high holds and Peguero has 13 in 35 appearances.
And in the three shutouts, the threesome combined to not allow a baserunner on the 17 strikeout.
“I don’t care who you play against. They knocked out a team three times in a row, that’s great work,” Counsell said. “And it was the same story – six innings from our starter and three great innings from Elvis, Joel and Devin.
“They did a great job, did a great job and put us in a good position.”
Brian Anderson is out again
For the second game in a row, Brian Anderson was eliminated from the lineup due to a back problem and was replaced at third base by Monasterio.
“Last year he dealt with it on a more serious level,” Counsell said, referring to Anderson missing most of last June with a similar issue when he was with the Miami Marlins. “So we’re always going to look at the lower back. It feels better today. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”
Brewers start on the starting lineup on Saturday
Christian Yelich DH
William Contreras C
Willy Adames SS
Owen Miller 1B
Tyrone Taylor RF
Blake Perkins LF
Andruw Monasterio 3B
Brice Turang 2B
Joey Wiemer CF
starting pitcher: Freddy Peralta
Next
Sunday – Brewers at Reds, 12:40 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Adrian Houser (3-2, 3.68) vs. Cincinnati RHP Ben Lively (4-5, 3.83). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.