Brewers beat Philadelphia, drop magic number to clinch division to 10

September 8, 2021
|In Brewers
|By Zach Heilprin

Milwaukee got some timely hitting and a lockdown effort from its bullpen to beat Philadelphia 4-3 and take two of the three games in the series.

A Bryce Harper home run off Freddy Peralta in the first inning put the Brewers in an early hole, but they climbed out quickly in their first crack at Phillies starter Kyle Gibson in the bottom of the inning. Milwaukee got an RBI double from Omar Narvaez to tie the game and then a bases-loaded walk from Daniel Vogelbach to take the lead. In the second, Peralta scored on an infield single from Christian Yelich to push it to a 3-1 game.

Philadelphia was able to answer in the third, as Peralta walked in one run and then Luis Urias was unable to turn a double play on JT Realmuto, allowing another run to score to tie the game.

Things stayed that way until the sixth inning when Eduardo Escobar drilled his 25th home run of the season. It proved to be the winning hit thanks to Milwaukee’s bullpen. They covered the final 5 1/3 innings following Peralta’s exit in the fourth inning.

After Brent Suter got the final out of that frame, Aaron Ashby pitched a pair of scoreless innings. Manager Craig Counsell then turned to his star trio of Brad Boxberger, Devin Williams and Josh Hader to close things down. Hader got his 30th save in style courtesy of a remarkable diving catch by Urias with two outs in the ninth.

Escobar and Kolton Wong had a pair of hits, as Milwaukee finished a 16-game stretch without a day off at 10-6. The club also improved to a franchise-best tying 31 games above .500 and saw the lead in the NL Central on Cincinnati grow to a season-high 12 games. The day’s events — Milwaukee winning and the Reds losing — also dropped the Brewers magic number to 10 to clinch the division.

After a day off Thursday, the Crew will head to Cleveland to open a weekend series with the Indians.