The Milwaukee Brewers have gotten themselves back in the win column with a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
It was Freddy Peralta's first start back in American Family Field since his injury back in May and it went extremely well. He got some run support early with a ground rule double from Andrew McCutchen to score Christian Yelich and give Peralta and the Crew a 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, David Peralta hit a deep fly ball to the right-center field gap and Tyrone Taylor leapt up with a perfectly timed jump to rob Peralta of a home run and keep it scoreless for Peralta. Taylor followed up that highlight reel grab with an RBI single in the bottom half of the 2nd.
The next inning, Yandy Diaz slugged a two run homer that was much too far for Taylor to bring back and the game tied at 2. But Peralta would lock it down from there, finishing the game with 5 IP, just two hits allowed, two runs, no walks, and four strikeouts.
The Brewers added some more runs in the bottom of the 5th as well to give Peralta the lead while he was still the pitcher of record. First, Andrew McCutchen lined an RBI single to center to score Willy Adames and then Kolten Wong doubled to the opposite field to bring home McCutchen and Rowdy Tellez to give the Crew a 5-2 lead.
That would be all the Brewers needed as the bullpen held it down from there. Hoby Milner allowed a run in the 7th but Brad Boxberger and Matt Bush closed down the 8th and 9th innings to secure the 5-3 victory. Of the three games these two teams have played against each other this year, all of them have ended in a 5-3 Brewers victory.
Freddy Peralta got the win and improved to 4-2 on the year, Ryan Yarbrough took the loss and fell to 0-7 on the year while Matt Bush recorded his second save on the year.
This short two-game series finishes with a matinee on Wednesday with Brandon Woodruff (9-3, 3.49 ERA) on the mound for Milwaukee against Jeffrey Springs (4-3, 2.50 ERA) of the Rays.