Diamondbacks 5, Brewers 2: Memorable season ends in miserable fashion
A season that began with much promise and seemed to be hitting full stride only a week ago is now, suddenly, over.
The offense once again went into a shell after some promising early inning signs, Freddy Peralta faltered after dominating to start and after 92 victories and a third National League Central Division title in six seasons the Milwaukee Brewers were bounced out of their wild-card series by the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-2, at American Family Field on Wednesday night.
Game 2 box score: Diamondbacks 5, Brewers 2
After getting Zac Gallen on the ropes with three hits and two first-inning runs, the bats generated five singles and a double over the final eight in bowing out meekly.
Peralta, meanwhile, went from being one out away from throwing a no-hitter through five to out of the game in a span of five batters and rookie Abner Uribe was unable to stem the tide after that.
The Brewers have dropped five straight games when facing elimination. They will enter what might be an interesting offseason considering the uncertain status of manager Craig Counsell sitting on this very ugly statistic: from 2018 through Wednesday, they are 1-9 in their last 10 playoff games.
One last gasp in the eighth
The sellout crowd of 41,166 was finally given something to cheer about to start the bottom of the eighth when Christian Yelich greeted Kevin Ginkel with a bunt single.
William Contreras followed with a single, and after Carlos Santana struck out Mark Canha drove a single to right to load the bases and force a pitching change.
And once again, the baseball gods failed to reward the Brewers, a theme throughout the two-game series.
Rookie Sal Frelick, matched up against left-hander Andrew Saalfrank, managed only a comebacker to the mound that resulted in a force play at home.
Then Willy Adames sent a 101-mph grounder up the middle that appeared destined for center, only to see the shaded-over Ketel Marte glove it and step on second for the easy forceout.
There was one more bit of bad luck in the ninth.
After Josh Donaldson was hit by Paul Sewald to start, Andruw Monasterio was called out on strikes to bring Tyrone Taylor to the plate. He hit a knuckler to short that Geraldo Perdomo dived to try and glove. but Perdomo dropped the ball.
Donaldson had to hold at first however, leading to a force play at second.
Yelich followed by doubling off the wall in left but Contreras – all season the one consistent offensive force – struck out on three pitches.
The Brewers jumped on Zac Gallen early
Milwaukee made Gallen, an NL Cy Young Award candidate with a 17-9 record, 3.47 ERA, WHIP of 1.12 and 220 strikeouts over 210 innings and 34 starts, throw a season-high 32 pitches in the opening inning in taking a quick 2-0 lead.
The right-hander came in with a 5-6 record, 4.42 ERA and WHIP of 1.20 in 18 starts away from Chase Field and saw the Brewers load the bases against him within the span of four batters as Yelich and Canha singled and Santana drew a walk.
A sacrifice fly by Frelick and single by Adames drove in the runs and got the crowd into frenzy from the outset.
Gallen wasn't rattled, however, and he'd retired seven straight before Santana and Canha singled in succession to put two on with one out in the third.
Then Tuesday's bad luck reappeared for the Brewers when Frelick lined a 102.3-mph laser at Gallen that knocked the pitcher's glove right off his hand after he reached out to make a stab at the ball.
Gallen kept his composure, though, quickly picked the ball up and began a 1-6-3 double play to extinguish the budding rally.
He remained locked in from there and allowed only a walk over the next two innings while Arizona's offense worked to give him the lead.
Freddy Peralta was locked in to start
Making the fourth postseason appearance of his career and second start, the right-hander was pitching Game 2 in place of the injured Brandon Woodruff.
He might have been a little jittery early, needing 20 pitches to navigate the first inning, but escaped having allowed nothing more than a free pass.
After that Peralta sailed through the next three innings, topping out at 97.7 mph on the radar gun and barely allowing any hard contact by the Diamondbacks.
He also was afforded a break when Arizona catcher Gabriel Moreno – author of the Diamondbacks' go-ahead homer in Game 1 – was lifted from the game after taking a backswing to the helmet by Brice Turang.
Peralta had retired 13 consecutive batters and had two outs in the fifth before finally giving up his first hit, and it was a big one – a 351-foot homer down the right-field line by Alek Thomas to break up the blanking.
The Diamondbacks kept the pressure on Peralta in the sixth, with Perdomo drawing a leadoff walk and Corbin Carroll following by pulling a shattered-bat double down the first-base line past a diving Santana after he fell behind in the count, 1-2.
With runners in scoring position, Marte then worked a seven-pitch at-bat, capping it with a two-run single to center that chased Peralta from the game.
Abner Uribe put in a tough spot
Uribe, the fireballing rookie reliever, took over for Peralta and was greeted by a Tommy Pham single.
A chopper to third by Christian Walker helped the Brewers momentarily as they were able to erase Marte in a rundown between third and home.
But Uribe responded by walking Jose Herrera, Moreno's replacement, on four pitches and then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Pham to score with a feet-first slide into home that took Uribe off his feet.
Uribe was examined briefly and remained in the game only to have Lourdes Gurriel bloop a single to short left. That allowed Walker to score, making it 5-2 and chasing Uribe from the game.
Hoby Milner entered and needed only two pitches to generate a double-play grounder to finally end the frame.
Peralta, meanwhile, had the book closed on him after five innings, three hits, four runs, two walks and five strikeouts over 85 pitches.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Diamondbacks 5, Brewers 2: Season ends Game 2 of NL wild-card series
