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Blake Perkins hits first homer, Kyle Harrison bounces back in 4-0 win vs Phillies
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- Blake Perkins hits first homer, Kyle Harrison bounces back in 4-0 win vs Phillies
The Milwaukee Brewers faced a tall task if they wanted to take the series against the Philadelphia Phillies , opposing southpaw Cristopher Sánchez in the rubber match June 14.
Blake Perkins and crew bested one of the best.
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A three-run home run from the most unlikely of sources was one of two long balls the Brewers slugged against Sánchez as Kyle Harrison returned to all-star form on the mound for a 4-0 win in front of a third straight sellout crowd at American Family Field.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 4, Phillies 0
Perkins' first blast of the year produced more earned runs on Sánchez's line than he had allowed in 13 of 14 starts this year.
In picking up the loss, Sánchez failed to go six innings for the first time since April 23 and saw his earned run average rise to 1.82 from 1.54.
All in all, the victory capped a solid weekend at home that saw the Brewers' 1-2 punch of Harrison and Jacob Misiorowski pitch a combined 15 shutout innings. The Brewers as a staff blanked Philadelphia in two of the three game.s.
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"Extremely impressive what Misiorowski did, but just very happy with how the whole team performed in general," said Jackson Chourio . "That's the best way to describe it, is just very happy with how we were able to play this weekend."
Blake Perkins shocks the stadium
On paper, it was one of the biggest mismatches of the season for a Brewers hitter.
Don't tell that to Perkins.
Perkins came into the day batting .113 with a .377 OPS and no home runs and was facing the Phillies ace whose ERA was second in Major League Baseball only to Jacob Misiorowski.
Naturally, Perkins delivered the biggest blow of the afternoon.
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Just when it seemed the Brewers were going to squander a first-and-third, no-out chance against Sánchez, Perkins took a 1-0 hanging slider and sent it 399 feet to left-center to put the Brewers ahead, 4-0.
"I'll tell you what: It's a good feeling," Perkins said. "I don't think anyone complains about the hitting the ball over the fence. First one of the year. It's been a while."
Perkins produced as many runs against swing against Sánchez than he had given up in his prior seven starts combined.
Perkins then chased Sánchez from the game in the sixth with a two-out rope to the wall in left for a double, which raised his career numbers in the batter-pitcher match-up to 6 for 7 with four extra-base hits.
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Brewers manager Pat Murphy credited the game plan put together by the team's hitting coaches for putting one of the worst lines of the year on Sánchez.
"I'd say collectively, it was just to see him up in the zone," Perkins said. "When he's commanding the bottom of the zone, it's what you see. He's really good and his stuff plays really well. So it's trying to see him up and have good at-bats, make him throw multiple pitches to get us out."
Kyle Harrison throws six scoreless
Back at a more standard elevation for baseball, Kyle Harrison looked much more like Kyle Harrison.
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Making his first outing since his eight-run debacle in the pitcher-nightmare environment of Las Vegas, Harrison threw six shutout innings despite not having his best swing-and-miss stuff.
"Happy to be back at sea level or whatever it is here," Harrison said. "Nice to see the ball moving like it should."
Harrison had no strikeouts and only three four-seam swings and misses through four innings, making do by missing barrels. Harrison has generated five ground ball outs and allowed only one hit in that time, a Derek Hill single that was immediately erased on a line-drive double play at 108 mph off the bat of Kyle Schwarber .
He struck out three over his final two innings, getting through the top of the Phillies order in the sixth for a third time to register his fourth start of at least six shutout frames this season.
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"Just needed to settle in and found my rhythm and timing," Harrison said. "I was moving a little too slow earlier, I'd say. That was great on Gary [Sánchez]'s part. He told me, 'Hey, man, you need to move quicker. I don't like that slow stuff.' That was huge."
Abner Uribe chucked a scoreless seventh and Aaron Ashby finished the game from there by throwing two hitless innings with three strikeouts, including a dynamic one to Bryce Harper where he locked him up on a curveball before throwing another hook by him.
Jackson Chourio does it again
Jackson Chourio took no time continuing his hot swinging from the night before when he hit a pair of home runs, driving a 1-2 sinker from Sánchez 412 feet to center for his ninth homer of the year.
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It was the first leadoff homer by a Brewers hitter this year and the MLB-leading seventh by Chourio in June.
Brewers schedule and probable pitchers
Off-day June 15.
Brewers vs. Guardians, June 16, 6:40 p.m.: Milwaukee LHP Robert Gasser (0-3, 6.38) vs. Cleveland RHP Slade Cecconi (3-5, 4.83) TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers vs. Guardians, June 17, 6:40 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Brandon Sproat (1-4, 5.70) vs. Cleveland LHP Parker Messick (6-3, 2.68) TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers vs. Guardians, June 18, 1:10 p.m.: Milwaukee LHP Shane Drohan (3-2, 3.59) vs. Cleveland RHP Tanner Bibee (2-7, 3.96) TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Perkins hits his first homer, Harrison bounces back in 4-0 win vs Phillies
