Jake Bauers drove in the winning run with a pinch-hit infield single, capping off a four-run eighth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers came back from an eight-run deficit to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-9 on Sunday, avoiding a series sweep.
The Brewers were down 8-0 in the third inning but slowly worked their way back, tying the game at 9 by scoring three runs with two outs in the eighth. Jackson Chourio walked, moved to second on Blake Perkins’ single, and scored on Garrett Mitchell’s RBI single to make it 9-7. Justin Martinez (5-6) came in as relief, and Rhys Hoskins tied the game with a two-run single to left.
Willy Adames doubled, and Hoskins advanced to third base before Bauers hit a slow grounder that rolled into left field for a run-scoring single.
Milwaukee’s comeback from the eight-run deficit is the second-largest in the franchise’s history. The Seattle Pilots once came back from an 11-3 deficit to win against Washington 16-13 on May 10, 1969, and the Brewers had another game in 1986 where they overcame an eight-run first inning against Cleveland to win 12-9.
Their largest comeback happened on April 28, 2004, when they trailed Cincinnati by nine runs in the fourth inning and won 10-9.
Jared Koenig (9-4) got the win, while Devin Williams secured a scoreless ninth for his 13th save out of 14 chances. This marks the fourth time in franchise history that the Brewers have come back to win after being down by eight or more runs.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo remarked, “The Brewers don’t shut down with two outs. They get even more stubborn with two outs. They did it to us for several days at Chase (Field) and it continued today.”
Milwaukee closed the gap to 8-4 with a run in the third, added two in the fourth, and scored an unearned run in the sixth. They made it 8-6 in the seventh with RBI doubles from Hoskins and Adames.
Lovullo stated, “If you slice it up any possible way, you can’t give up seven runs in three innings. You’re going to lose a lot of baseball that way, if that’s what coming out of your bullpen. That is not our bullpen. They’re going to pick it up.”
Arizona (87-69) is still behind San Diego in the race for the NL wild card. The New York Mets, who are also in the wild-card hunt, will play against Philadelphia on Sunday night. Milwaukee (89-67), which secured the NL Central title on Wednesday, remains the only team in Major League Baseball this season that has not experienced a losing streak of four or more games.
“Let me tell you what we learned,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. “We’re not good enough, after all we’ve been through, and all the injuries and adversity that we’ve faced this year — we’ve all been through it and it’s old — we’re not good enough to take our foot off the gas.”
Randal Grichuk hit a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning off Jared Koenig (9-4), giving Arizona a 9-6 lead. In response, Mitchell got an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.
“It’s nice to see that we didn’t roll over,” Hoskins said. “Totally could have. That’s a good team over there, that’s what they done to us these last three nights.”
Josh Bell and Eugenio Suárez hit home runs during a seven-run third inning against Milwaukee starter Frankie Montas (7-12), who pitched only 2 2/3 innings.
Geraldo Perdomo hit a triple into the right field corner with one out and scored on a bad throw by second baseman Brice Turang.
Arizona loaded the bases with a single, a walk, and catcher’s interference. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed with an RBI ground-out, and Jake McCarthy hit a two-run single to right, putting Arizona ahead 5-0.
Bell then hit his 19th home run, a 436-foot shot to center, and Suárez added his 29th home run, giving the Diamondbacks an 8-0 lead.
Montas gave up eight runs, seven of which were earned, on six hits, along with two walks and four strikeouts.
Ketel Marte started the scoring for Arizona with his career-high 35th home run, putting them up 1-0 with one out in the first inning.
