Twenty years ago, Bill Hall (one of the author’s all-time favorite players), wearing No. 2, hit a walk-off home run with a pink bat on Mother’s Day. Today, Brice Turang, also No. 2, used a pink bat to add another chapter to Milwaukee Mother’s Day lore when he walked off the Yankees with a two-out, game-ending homer that just squeaked over the wall in center field.
Brewer starter Logan Henderson got off to a positive start with a strikeout of Trent Grisham. Ben Rice, who was next, made hard contact, but Blake Perkins — playing in right field, where he has made only four appearances in the last three seasons combined — made a fantastic catch on the run. Next up was Aaron Judge, and while the Brewers have done an excellent job keeping him down in this series (he was 1-for-6 with only a single and three walks), you can’t do it forever: Judge drove a first-pitch fastball, which was right down the middle, out to right field for his league-leading 16th home run of the season. If he’s going to get you, a solo home run with two outs isn’t a bad time for him to get you.
After the Judge homer, Henderson walked Cody Bellinger, who then stole second base with Jazz Chisholm Jr. at the plate, but Chisholm struck out to end the inning.
Carlos Rodón, who had arthroscopic surgery on his throwing elbow in October and was thus making his first start of the year, walked Chourio to start his 12th major league season. Brice Turang tried to spring a surprise bunt on the Yankees, but Rodón made a nice play to throw Turang out, so Turang’s bunt went into the book as a sacrifice (though he was certainly trying to get a hit). Last night’s walk-off hero, William Contreras, became Rodón’s first strikeout victim this season, and Gary Sánchez struck out, too, and the leadoff walk went for naught.
Ryan McMahon made Henderson work to start the second inning, and would’ve had a 10-pitch leadoff bloop single if not for a nice catch by Luis Rengifo down the third-base line. José Caballero smoked a ball to center field with one out, and despite a valiant effort by Garrett Mitchell, it got over his head for a double. Spencer Jones ambushed Henderson’s next pitch and lined an RBI single to center for his first career hit (after going hitless on Friday). Henderson clearly wasn’t fooling the dangerous Yankee lineup, as four of their first six batted balls were hit at more than 104 mph, but he was able to get the next two — J.C. Escarra on a pop-up, and Grisham on a ground ball that hit Jones, resulting in an automatic out.
Vaughn drew an eight-pitch walk to start the bottom of the second, giving the Brewers a leadoff baserunner for the second straight inning. But Rodón struck out Rengifo and Mitchell and got Perkins to ground out to second, and the inning ended with Vaughn still at first.
Rice put a scare into the Milwaukee faithful with a deep fly ball to start the third, but it held up for Mitchell in center. Henderson then struck out Judge and got Bellinger to pop out, so his first 1-2-3 inning came against the meatiest part of the Yankee lineup. Milwaukee had nothing in the bottom of the inning except three groundouts from Joey Ortiz, Chourio, and Turang.
Henderson had another three-up, three-down inning in the fourth, an especially efficient one with just nine pitches thrown. Contreras walked to start the bottom of the inning, the third time in four innings that Rodón had issued a free pass to the leadoff hitter. Sánchez walked, too, and with the benefit of a successful challenge during the at-bat, Rodón had thrown eight straight balls to start the inning. After a mound visit, Rodón hit Vaughn with a fastball up and in that got him in the shoulder, and Milwaukee had the bases loaded with no outs (and no hits!).
Rengifo hit a ground ball to third, and McMahon went home with it to get the first out. Mitchell fell behind 0-2, but managed to hit a sac fly to center that scored Sánchez and cut New York’s lead in half. A wild pitch advanced both runners to second and third with Perkins at the plate, and Perkins came through — he hit a line drive up the middle, just beyond the reach of a diving Chisholm, and because of the wild pitch, both Vaughn and Rengifo were able to score. Milwaukee, suddenly, had a 3-2 lead.
Henderson, by this point, was pretty locked in, and he sat down Jones, Escarra, and Grisham in order, with strikeouts of the first two. If you count the ball in the second inning that hit Jones — which was technically scored as a single, even though it would’ve almost certainly been a groundout had it not hit Jones — he’d retired 11 in a row. That would be the end of the line for Henderson, though, who was at 74 pitches and facing the prospect of dealing with the scary part of the Yankees’ lineup for a third time. While it was a bit sketchy in the first two innings, Henderson settled in nicely and finished with five innings, four hits, one walk, and two runs allowed, five strikeouts, and was in line for the win.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Turang hit a single up the middle, Contreras walked, and that was the end of the afternoon for Rodón. He was replaced by Jake Bird, who struck out Sánchez looking on a pitch that needed to be overturned by an Escarra challenge. Bird then struck out Vaughn, and the Brewers couldn’t take advantage of their two on, one out situation.
DL Hall was the pitcher tasked with facing the Rice-Judge-Bellinger section of the Yankee lineup. Hall got Rice on a groundout for the first out; Judge walked, but was caught trying to steal second. But with two outs, Hall issued a walk to Bellinger and then gave up a double to Chisholm, which tied the game at 3-3. Hall has been really good this season, but not being able to get either of Bellinger or Chisholm, both lefties, wasn’t great. A McMahon groundout ended the inning, but Milwaukee’s lead had disappeared.
Milwaukee got a leadoff baserunner against the new Yankee pitcher, Paul Blackburn, when Rengifo hit a slow bouncer to third base, and McMahon’s throw was errant. (I thought Rengifo would’ve beaten the throw anyway, but that wasn’t how it was scored.) Mitchell struck out looking, and Perkins was replaced in the lineup by Sal Frelick, who walked (Rengifo stole second during the at-bat, but either way, the Brewers had runners on first and second with one out).
Ortiz was up, and he hit a grounder to third that wasn’t quite hit hard enough for McMahon to turn a 5-3 double play. Somewhat surprisingly, the Yankees pulled Blackburn (who is right-handed) for Fernando Cruz (who is also right-handed) to face the right-handed-hitting Chourio with two outs. Regardless of the reasoning, it worked, and Chourio flew out to right to end the inning with the score still tied at three.
Trevor Megill was the new Brewer pitcher in the top of the seventh, and he got to show off his graceful athleticism when Caballero popped up a bunt for the first out. Jones then grounded out on the first pitch he saw, and after throwing just three pitches, Megill had two outs. Megill then walked Escarra, the No. 9 hitter, never a good move, but he struck out Grisham to end the frame.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Brewers had Turang, Contreras, and Sánchez due up against Cruz, so it was a good time for the Brewers — who’d had a bunch of baserunners but just two hits to that point — to make a move. Turang just missed extra bases when a fly ball down the right-field line went foul by a couple of feet; a pitch later, he struck out. On the first pitch Contreras saw, he blooped a single into right field to give Milwaukee a baserunner. But Cruz struck out Sánchez and Vaughn, and the inning was over.
Aaron Ashby, who threw 27 pitches in two innings yesterday, was the Brewer pitcher in the eighth. He made Rice look foolish for the first out, then surprised Judge with a 99-mph sinker on the low inside corner on a 3-2 pitch to get him looking. Bellinger, with a nice piece of defensive hitting, knocked a single to right with two outs, but Ashby recovered to strike out Chisholm; he was quite dominant in his inning of work.
Tim Hill came to the mound for New York in the bottom of the eighth, and Rengifo greeted him by lining a single to left. Mitchell, who tried to bunt early in his at-bat, hit a ball hard up the middle, but the Yankees had him positioned perfectly and turned an easy double play. Frelick then grounded out on the first pitch he saw, and Hill was through the inning on just seven pitches.
Milwaukee turned to Abner Uribe to keep the game tied in the ninth. He allowed a one-out walk to Caballero, but didn’t have much trouble getting three outs to send the Brewers to the bottom of the ninth with the score tied.
Yankee closer David Bednar was in for the bottom of the ninth, and he struck out Ortiz and Chourio to start the inning. But Turang, the budding superstar, was up next, and he jumped on Bednar’s first pitch, a curveball that didn’t get low enough. Turang crushed it to center field, and the only question was whether it would be over or off the wall. It just cleared the yellow line in the deepest part of the ballpark and landed 411 feet away for a game-ending, sweep-clinching homer.
This was a fun win in what was one of the better regular-season series in recent Brewers history (and their first sweep of the Yankees since 1989). The Yankees, who came in with an AL-best 26-12 record, were swept at the hands of the Brewers, who look to have new life after Chourio and Vaughn rejoined the lineup. That said, they’ve succeeded mostly because of their pitching in the five games (four of which they’ve won) since those important right-handed hitters returned, and today was another example. Henderson, Hall, Megill, Ashby, and Uribe worked around six hits and five walks to hold the powerful Yankee lineup to just three runs.
On the offensive side, Turang was the obvious hero, as he finished 2-for-4 with the solo homer. William Contreras reached three times (1-for-2 with a single and two walks), and Perkins had a nice moment himself with the big hit early in the game, a two-run single that gave the Brewers their first lead.
What a great series! Milwaukee is off Monday, and then they’ll welcome the San Diego Padres to American Family Field from Tuesday through Thursday. (Will Christian Yelich be with them?) For now, we get a day to bask in the glory of this win.
