The Brewers got right down to business tonight. They came after Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski early, and before anyone seemed to know what was happening, the Brewers had the lead. They added to that lead in the second inning, and while Wrobleski settled down and the Brewer offense turned quiet, the early lead proved more than enough for Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson and the relievers who closed this one out. When all was said and done, the Brewers had won their ninth consecutive regular-season game against the Dodgers (though most Brewers fans will only really care about the not-regular-season games sandwiched in between this win and the last one).
Henderson, a player who doesn’t typically walk many batters, looked a little tentative with the game’s first batter, Shohei Ohtani, at the plate, and walked him on five pitches. He went right after Mookie Betts, though, and struck him out on three pitches for the first out. Henderson struck out Freddie Freeman, too, perhaps with the aid of a favorable call on strike two. With Kyle Tucker batting, Ohtani appeared to steal second base, but a Brewers challenge overturned the call and Ohtani was out to end the inning.
Jackson Chourio got the Brewer offense started with a perfectly placed ground ball that made it through the middle of the infield. Brice Turang followed with a better-struck single to center, and the Brewers were in business early with runners on first and second and nobody out. On Wrobleski’s eighth pitch, the first to William Contreras, the Brewer catcher jumped on a slider over the lower-inside part of the plate and crushed it down the left-field line. It stayed inside the foul pole, and the Brewers had a 3-0 lead before they made an out.
Christian Yelich became the first Brewer out when he hit a little pop-up to shortstop, but Andrew Vaughn, the next batter, kept things going with a single to center. Jake Bauers singled, too. Luis Rengifo blooped a single just over Betts at shortstop, too, and six of the first seven Brewers had hits and they had the bases loaded with one out and three runs already in. Sal Frelick was next, and while he couldn’t keep the hit parade going, he did hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Vaughn. Joey Ortiz then walked, which brought Chourio to the plate for the second time in the inning, this time with the bases loaded. Wrobleski left a curveball hanging right over the middle on his first pitch to Chourio, but he was only able to foul it off; Chourio battled for 10 pitches after falling behind 0-2, but ultimately struck out swinging on a high 3-2 fastball that would’ve been ball four. Still: the Brewers punched first, and hard, in the bottom of the first, and handed Henderson a four-run lead.
Henderson got through the second with no trouble (and picked up a couple of strikeouts in the process). The Brewers struck again in the second: with one out, Contreras singled to right. After a Yelich popout, Vaughn hit his fourth double of the year to right-center, Contreras came around to score, and the Brewers extended their lead to 5-0.
Little did we know, the scoring would freeze there for quite a while. Henderson had another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third, and Wrobleski—who barely made it through the first inning and had trouble again in the second—settled in. He had a quick and easy bottom of the third, a 1-2-3 fourth, and erased a leadoff walk with a double play in another three-batter fifth.
Henderson, meanwhile, had a trying fourth inning but got through it without relinquishing the lead. A leadoff single by Ohtani and uncharacteristic walks to Freeman and Andy Pages loaded the bases with two outs, but Max Muncy popped out and the inning was over. Teoscar Hernández hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but Henderson got the next three.
That ended Henderson’s night: he pitched five innings (and threw 85 pitches), allowed just two hits, and didn’t allow any runs. He did walk three batters, which is unusual for Henderson, but he struck out seven and lowered his season ERA to 2.74. Henderson made a little history, too:
Shane Drohan was the first pitcher out of the Brewer bullpen, as he took over in the top of the sixth. Drohan also had some control issues tonight; he walked the leadoff hitter, Betts, and after a strikeout of Freeman, walked Tucker, too. But Pages struck out and Muncy flew out, and the shutout continued. Wrobleski was replaced by Paul Gervase in the bottom of the sixth, and except for a two-out walk to Ortiz, he had no trouble.
The Dodgers finally broke through in the top of the seventh. A fielding error by Rengifo put the leadoff batter, Hernández, on base, and a single by Dalton Rushing put runners on first and second. Pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas flew out to right, Hernández advanced to third, and with runners on the corners and one out, Pat Murphy opted to bring in Aaron Ashby to face Ohtani. Ohtani flew out harmlessly to left, which scored a run, but the Brewers were one out away from getting out of the inning. They got that out when Betts grounded out to third, a play which was challenged (Vaughn had to stretch quite a ways to catch Rengifo’s throw) but upheld on review. After six-and-a-half, the Brewers still led 5-1.
The Brewer half of the seventh went by with nothing except a one-out single for Contreras, his third hit of the game. The Dodgers got a leadoff baserunner in the eighth when Ashby walked Freeman, but Ashby got Tucker and Freeman was out at second on a Pages ground ball. Muncy was hit by a pitch, and with Hernández coming up, Murphy opted for the matchup and brought in the right-handed Chad Patrick. Patrick got Hernández to ground out to first, and the inning was over.
Milwaukee went quietly in the bottom of the eighth. Patrick stayed on for the ninth, and quickly got three harmless flyouts. Just under a week after his first career save, Patrick had his second.
Credit to Wrobleski for settling things down after Milwaukee’s early explosion, but with the way this team has been pitching lately, five runs was more than enough. Henderson didn’t look quite as sharp as he has in some of his other outings, but there’s no arguing with five scoreless innings. Since rejoining the rotation in early May, he’s allowed just five earned runs in 21 innings (a 2.14 ERA).
Offensively, Contreras was the big star. He was 3-for-4 with the big hit of the night, the first-inning three-run homer that ultimately provided the Brewers with everything they needed. Vaughn also had a nice night, as he went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and a run scored.
The Brewers will go for another series victory and a fifth straight win (and ten straight regular-season games against the Dodgers) tomorrow evening. Roki Sasaki and Robert Gasser will face off in that one, with first pitch at 6:15 p.m.