Athletics sweep the Brewers with an 8-6 victory in Milwaukee

As the Oakland Athletics faced the Brewers today in Milwaukee, they were fighting for a season’s first, a winning road trip. A win today would make it five in a row against the Nation League Central Division leaders the Pirates and Brewers.

A’s manager Mark Kotsay sent 27-year-old lefty JP Sears to the mound to face the Brew Crew who are currently tied for the division lead with Pittsburgh. Sears last started against the Pirates but didn’t factor in the decision. Taking the mound today for Milwaukee was 27-year-old righty Freddy Peralta. Peralta made his thirteenth start of the season and started the day 5-5 with a 4.55 ERA.

Sears got off to a great start, striking out 3 of the first four batters he faced, but 2018 National League MVP Christian Yelich took him deep to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Andruw Monasterio led off the bottom of the third with a base hit and a stolen base. Owen Miller followed with a double to left field scoring Monasterio easily.

Ryan Noda led off the fourth with a single and advanced to second on a misplay by Brewers center fielder Joey Wiemer. That was the A’s first hit of the game. Ramon Laureano took a pitch to the hand putting runners on first and second with no outs. Seth Brown then sent the eleventh pitch of his at-bat into the right field stands to give the A’s their first lead of the afternoon 3-2. Brent Rooker said that looked like fun and blasted his homer into deep left field, bringing the score to 4-2.

Ramon Laureano led off the sixth inning with a walk, moved to second on a fielder’s choice and then stole third easily. Aledmys Diaz walked with two outs. But today’s catcher, Carlos Diaz grounded into a force out to end the threat.

Sears pitched five solid innings and gave way to Friday’s opener, fellow southpaw Sam Moll. Willy Adames led off with a single and Luis Urias was hit by a Moll 95+ mph fastball. Blake Perkins singled to right, scoring Adames, and chasing Moll with two outs in the sixth and the A’s still leading 4-3. Lucas Erceg shut the door, inducing a weak groundout to pinch hitter Rowdy Tellez.

Kevin Smith got that run back for the A’s with his fourth homer of the season, increasing their lead to 5-3 in the top of the seventh. Erceg shut down the Brewers in the seventh.

Shintaro Fujinami came in to shut down the Brewers in the bottom of the eighth inning. After a quick groundout by Yelich, Fuji lost his control and walked the next two batters. But lefty Richard Lovelady came in and slammed the door on the Brewer’s rally.

Carlos Perez led off the inning with a walk, and Tony Kemp was hit by a Peter Strzelecki pitch. Kevin smith dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners over and Esteury Ruiz kept up his clutch hitting with a double ripped down the third base line to score Perez and Kemp and giving the A’s a 7-3 lead. Ryan Noda drove in Ruiz with a single to left, increasing the lead to 8-3.

Trevor May came in to shut down the Brewers in the ninth. After two quick outs, he gave up a walk to William Contreras and a base hit to Willy Adames. May then walked Christian Yelich to load the bases, and Victor Caratini on four pitches to drive in Contreras. Sam Long, who shut down the Brewers in the tenth inning yesterday for his first save of the season, came in and gave up a cheapie bloop single to drive in two and to tighten the score to 8-6. But he induced a ground out to end the game and got his second save in two days.

The victory gave JP Sears his first victory of the season the A’s five straight wins for the first time since 2021.

Today in Baseball History: 1927 - During the ninth inning, the Philadelphia Athletics field a team of seven future Hall of Famers. The outfield consists of Ty Cobb in right, Al Simmons in center, and Zack Wheat in left. Jimmie Foxx is at first base, Eddie Collins is at second, and Lefty Grove pitches in relief. Cy Perkins started as catcher, but when Mickey Cochrane pinch-hit for him, seven Cooperstown-bound players were in the lineup.