Durbin's sacrifice fly gives Brewers walk-off win over Red Sox
Published
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Caleb Durbin’s sacrifice fly drove in the winning run for the Milwaukee Brewers, who earned their first sweep of the season with a 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox in 10 innings on Wednesday.
For the second consecutive day, the Brewers won in walk-off fashion in extra innings, a day after Christian Yelich's grand slam in the 10th gave them a 5-1 victory.
Durbin’s late-game heroics capped off a two-hit, three-RBI day and included a two-run double that gave Milwaukee its first lead of the day.
Boston tied the game in the seventh on Wilyer Abreu’s 13th home run of the season and pulled ahead in extra innings when Nick Sogard scored against Milwaukee left-hander Tyler Alexander (3-5).
Having already used closer Aroldis Chapman for the ninth, Red Sox manager Alex Cora gave the 10th to Justin Slaten (1-4), who gave up a leadoff single to Sal Frelick, then saw the tying run score when Kristian Campbell threw a grounder from Isaac Collins wildly to home. That allowed automatic runner Daz Cameron to score and put the the winning run on third before Durbin came to the plate.
After working out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, Brewers starter Freddy Peralta allowed three runs on six hits and three walks. He struck out six over five innings.
Boston right-hander Brayan Bello went 4 2/3 innings, allowing a pair of runs — only one earned — on two walks with two strikeouts.
The Red Sox struck first, taking a 1-0 lead on Ceddane Rafaela’s third homer of the season with two outs in the second.
After Jake Bauers tied it with a solo shot in the third, Boston pulled a head on Rafael Devers’ two-run single in the fourth.
Bauers drew a leadoff walk and scored again in the fifth to get Milwaukee within a run and the Brewers pulled ahead in the sixth with a two-run double.
Key moment
After Durbin’s double gave Milwaukee the lead, manager Pat Murphy sent right-hander Nick Mears out for a second inning of work for the third time this season and second time in a week after noting earlier in the series that he’d hope to lighten the workload for Mears, who’d been one of the Brewers' most heavily used relievers this month.
Mears retired his first two batters then fell behind, 3-2, before leaving a fastball up to Abreu, who sent it to right-center for the game-tying homer.
Key stat
After throwing a season-high 101 pitches and failing to get through the fifth inning his last time out, Peralta threw 108 Wednesday, including 27 in the first inning and 30 in the second.
Up next
Red Sox: Off Thursday, at Atlanta on Friday.
Brewers: Off Thursday, at Philadelphia on Friday.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb