Brewers 8, Twins 7: Late homers the difference

2024-07-22 04:00:02

MINNEAPOLIS – The longball was the difference for the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon.

Jackson Chourio tied the game with a solo home run in the seventh inning, Rhys Hoskins provided the lead with a two-run blast in the eighth and Eric Haase finished it off with a solo blast in the ninth as the Brewers swept the Minnesota Twins, 8-7, at Target Field.

Haase also homered in the third inning, giving the backup catcher his first multi-homer game since Sept. 9, 2022 as well as the sixth of his career.

“The story of the game was Hoskins coming through. The mental toughness that it takes to struggle the way he’s went through it,” manager Pat Murphy said. “Every hit he gets is a big hit, it seems like. Chourio, what can you say? It’s amazing what he’s doing.

“And then of course, Haase. We saw this in spring training. Nobody’s surprised.”

Milwaukee scored seven of its runs in the final five innings as it overcame a spotty start from Aaron Civale. Five relievers pieced together the rest of the game, but it wasn’t easy.

Closer Trevor Megill was handed a three-run lead with which to work in the ninth but surrendered a leadoff homer to Byron Buxton — his second of the game — and then a double to Max Kepler, who came in to score two batters later.

BOX SCORE:Brewers 8, Twins 7

Megill hung in to win an eight-pitch battle against Matt Wallner, however, striking him out swinging to earn his 21st save and improve the Brewers to 57-42 with a big three-game series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field up next.

Before the game, Milwaukee welcomed back left-hander Jared Koenig to its bullpen after reinstating him from the injured list. Right-hander Joel Kuhnel was designated for assignment.

Rhys Hoskins to the rescue

With Griffin Jax in, Sal Frelick singled just past third baseman Brooks Lee with one out in the eighth. That brought Rhys Hoskins to the plate, and he lofted a two-run homer just over the wall in left-center in an 0-2 count to give Milwaukee the lead yet again.

The umpires briefly conferred to insure it was indeed a homer, as a young Twins fan reached over the fence in front of him and caught the ball, but the ball was well over the green-padded wall and indeed ruled a homer.

Minnesota quickly threatened in the bottom of the eighth when consecutive singles and then a walk loaded the bases against Elvis Peguero with nobody out.

But Peguero responded to the challenge, getting a flyout to shallow center and then strikeouts of all-star Willi Castro and Ryan Jeffers to cap his 28-pitch day.

“We didn’t attack the zone the same way I thought we had been,” Murphy said of his pitchers’ performances in general. “Maybe it’s the break, who knows? But I think collectively, it wasn’t our normal, attack-the-zone pitching game.

“I mean, there were good performances. Peguero getting out of that jam is a credit to him, two punchouts. Koenig getting out of his mess, and then Megill getting out of his mess. I thought there was good there.

“But they left a small village on base.”

What a sequence for Jackson Chourio

Chourio got Bryse Wilson to raise both arms in the air when he leaped up against the wall down the left-field line to haul a Christian Vázquez drive in for the third out of the sixth.

Then on the second pitch thrown by reliever Jorge Alcala in the seventh – a 97.8-mph fastball – Chourio blasted a game-tying, 443-foot homer into the second deck in left-center to knot the score at 5-5.

Chourio now has 10 homers and 12 stolen bases, making him the ninth rookie in Brewers history to reach the 10-10 mark in a season.

Koenig (8-1) then kept the Twins from responding with a scoreless seventh, despite allowing the first two batters to reach. He needed to throw 24 pitches to do so in his first game action since June 28.

Lead see-saws in the fifth

After Joey Ortiz reached on a fielder’s choice in the fifth, Garrett Mitchell bunted for a hit to bring Chourio to the plate.

Fresh off the first three-hit game of his career, Chourio this time ripped a double into the gap in left-center that plated both runners and tied the game.

One batter later, Haase muscled a single up the middle to score Chourio and give the Brewers their first lead at 4-3.

It didn’t last long.

Civale walked Castro and Trevor Larnach followed with a homer just into the first row above the high wall in right-center. Minnesota went back in front, 5-4, with that swing and two batters later Civale was replaced by Rob Zastryzny.

He allowed four hits, five runs and four walks with four strikeouts over 4 ⅓ innings and 87 pitches.

Dueling homers in the third

Milwaukee’s first hit of the day was a two-out solo homer to left in the third by Haase that halted a streak of four consecutive strikeouts by Ryan.

Minnesota quickly got that run back, however, when Civale surrendered a leadoff homer to Buxton in the bottom of the frame, leaving it a 3-1 game.

Shaky second inning for the Brewers

Civale entered the day having walked as many as five batters in a game just once, all the way back in late April.

He walked the bases loaded with two outs in the second, then appeared to get out of it by inducing a soft ground ball up the middle. But Brice Turang, who ranged over behind second base, made an errant backhanded flip to a covering Willy Adames that trickled past him and back into the infield.

Two runs scored as the Twins took the early lead. Civale followed by hitting Castro then got Larnach to fly out to right to keep it a 2-0 game.

“Civale, although he’s not throwing the ball well, he’s out of the inning and God knows what happens after that,” Murphy said of his team’s “boneheaded defensive play”.

Another day, another rain delay

Following a 14-minute rain delay that pushed back first pitch on Saturday, the teams waited out a 49-minute delay in this one.

And after the Brewers went down in order in the top of the first, Castro opened by banging an apparent triple off the wall in right-center only to have the safe call immediately challenged by Murphy.

After a short review the call was overturned and Castro was ruled out, the victim of a nifty 9-6-5 relay. Civale then retired the next two batters for a nine-pitch first inning.

More:Sunday’s Milwaukee Brewers game vs. Minnesota Twins won’t be on TV. But you can still watch for free.