Rhys Hoskins hit a two-run homer, and Freddy Peralta pitched five strong innings to help the Milwaukee Brewers boost their lead in the NL Central with a 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Hoskins hit his 24th home run off Eduardo Rodriguez (2-3) in the fourth inning, and the Brewers’ five-pitcher effort kept baseball’s highest-scoring offense in check. Peralta (11-8) allowed one run on six hits, and Devin Williams closed the game with a perfect ninth inning for his 12th save in 13 tries.
With this win, the Brewers widened their lead in the NL Central to 10 games, thanks to the Chicago Cubs losing 9-5 to Colorado.
“Freddy wasn’t his best self, but he bobbed and weaved, gave us five,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We got some big outs at the end. The bullpen was really good.”
The Diamondbacks managed only six hits and fell into a tie with San Diego for the top NL wild-card spot. They are still five games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West after the Dodgers lost 6-2 to Atlanta.
“We built some innings, but we just couldn’t get that big hit,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We couldn’t get into that space where we had the slug that broke the game open.”
Both starting pitchers were strong.
Peralta walked two batters in the first inning and gave up a run on Pavin Smith’s sacrifice fly but managed to work through traffic for the rest of his outing. He had five strikeouts and four walks in his second consecutive season with 30 starts.
“My goal from the beginning was to put up zeroes, whether it was four innings or seven,” Peralta said. “I know the guys behind me are going to do it — our bullpen is great.”
Rodriguez struck out seven batters through the first three innings before Hoskins’ two-run homer off the base of the second deck in the fourth. Rodriguez allowed just those two runs on five hits in five innings, with seven strikeouts and three walks.
“I felt pretty good. The only pitch I felt I missed was a sinker and when you miss a pitch, you pay for it,” Rodriguez said. “The last three or four games I’ve missed a pitch to the wrong guy and paid for it.”
