One bad inning by Freddy Peralta is enough to cost Brewers game, series vs. Blue Jays
TORONTO – One bad inning by Freddy Peralta was the difference Thursday afternoon.
The right-hander allowed two home runs and three runs total in the first and that proved to be more than enough for Kevin Gausman opposite him as the Milwaukee Brewers dropped a 3-1 decision and the series to the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
Even more frustrating was the fact that after that opening inning Peralta was terrific, facing only two batters over the minimum to record his seventh quality start in 10 turns this season.
Box score: Blue Jays 3, Brewers 1
But Milwaukee's offense, which entered already in a funk, was no match for Gausman as he struck out 11 over 6⅔ innings and allowed only one extra-base hit, a third-inning double by Joey Wiemer.
The Brewers (29-27) have lost five consecutive road series.
The game had "one of those days" kind of feel for the Brewers only a couple innings into it.
The frustration began with Peralta surrendering a solo homer to Bo Bichette four pitches into his day.
Then with two outs, Daulton Varsho singled and Matt Chapman belted a 1-2 fastball out over the plate out to right to up Toronto's lead to 3-0.
The multiple-homer game was Peralta's second straight and third in his last six starts.
Peralta allowed a single and a walk after Chapman's homer before finally finishing the first at 28 pitches.
Then, Gausman had a string of four consecutive strikeouts snapped in the second when Andruw Monasterio sent a drive to the gap in right-center that appeared to be destined for two or possibly three bases.
But centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier laid out to make a spectacular diving catch on the warning track to rob Monasterio of what would have been his first extra-base hit in the majors.
Peralta allowed a leadoff double to No. 9 batter Tyler Heineman to start the second but stranded him to begin a string of nine consecutive batters retired as he finally began to settle in.
The problem was, Gausman was largely untouchable with his four-seamer and splitter mix as he utilized that to generate at least two strikeouts in each of the first four innings while keeping Milwaukee's offense at bay.
By fanning Rowdy Tellez, William Contreras and Brian Anderson in the sixth, Gausman upped his total on the day to 11 while also recording his major-league-leading fifth double-digit strikeout game.
Peralta (5-5) faced only one over the minimum after Heineman's double and through six innings threw only 85 pitches, a nice bounceback after not only the rough first inning but his previous start when he was rocked for eight hits and 10 runs in 2⅓ innings against San Francisco.
Milwaukee scored its lone run in the ninth when Tellez led off with a triple and scored on a double-play grounder by Anderson.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' Freddy Peralta has one bad inning in loss to Blue Jays
