Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Christian Yelich hit his long-awaited 200th career home run in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels.
Yelich and the rest of his teammates were thrilled Sal Frelick overshadowed him eight innings later.
The Brewers will look to build off the momentum of their 6-3 win when they play the rubber match of their three-game series in Anaheim, Calif.
Right-hander Freddy Peralta (4-4, 4.38 ERA) is slated to start for the Brewers against Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson (6-6, 2.58).
Frelick ended Tuesday’s game in dramatic fashion, when he made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Taylor Ward of the tying three-run homer and preserve Milwaukee’s victory.
For eight innings, Yelich’s milestone round-tripper that snapped a 17-game homerless drought seemed as if it would be the highlight of an easy victory.
But the Angels, who were blanked on five hits over the first eight innings by Tobias Myers and Enoli Paredes, scored three runs on four hits against Elieser Hernandez and Joel Payamps. Trevor Megill entered with two on and two outs and got ahead 1-2 on Ward before the Angels’ left fielder hit a shot to deep right-center field.
“I was thinking tie score,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
Frelick celebrated in the outfield with Yelich and right fielder Jackson Chourio while Megill and catcher Gary Sanchez both put their hands on their heads in amazement.
Frelick’s gem ensured a long-awaited offensive outburst wouldn’t go unrewarded for the Brewers, who scored more than five runs Tuesday for the first time since a 10-0 win over the Detroit Tigers on June 7. Milwaukee is 7-4 in its last 11 games.
“For them to see ‘Yeli’ do that — it’s been a while, seeing him do that, that’s a nice feeling, I know everybody relaxed a little bit,” Murphy said. “We’re not playing great baseball by any stretch, but we did some really nice things.”
Frelick’s catch ended Los Angeles’ furious late bid to earn its fourth win in the last five games. The Angels haven’t won four of five since going 4-1 from May 15-20.
After scoring 13 runs over 14 innings against opposing starting pitchers in the previous four games, the Angels got just three runners to second base and none as far as third base against Myers in 6 1/3 innings. Los Angeles had three hits with runners on base before Nolan Schanuel’s two-out RBI single pulled the hosts within 6-3.
“We put ourselves in position to pick and peck and maybe get a run here, get a run there, but we just couldn’t get (Myers),” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We took care of the bullpen when they came in, but it just wasn’t enough.”
Peralta took the loss in his most recent start last Friday, when he allowed six runs on 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings as the Brewers fell to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5. He didn’t factor into the decision in his lone appearance against the Angels on April 9, 2019, when Peralta gave up seven runs on eight hits over 3 1/3 innings in Milwaukee’s 11-8 loss.
Anderson earned the win last Friday after surrendering one run over 5 1/3 innings in the Angels’ 8-6 victory over the San Francisco Giants. He is 2-2 with a 4.76 ERA in five career starts against the Brewers.
–Field Level Media