Owen Miller delivers big hit in 10th inning and the, Elvis Peguero closes the door as Brewers beat Guardians
CLEVELAND - What a way to wrap up a series victory.
Owen Miller drove in the winning run against his former team in the top of the 10th inning and Elvis Peguero stepped up and delivered his first career save to close out a 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field.
The late heroics helped overcome an uneven start by Corbin Burnes and another frustrating day for the offense, which put up four early runs and went into a shell from there.
A 1-2-3 ninth by Devin Williams (4-1) set the stage for Miller's blow in the 10th.
Box score: Brewers 5, Guardians 4 (10 innings)
With Joey Wiemer starting on second base, Christian Yelich struck out to bring Miller to the plate. Facing right-hander Trevor Stephan, he jumped on a first-pitch fastball up in the zone and yanked it high off the wall in left-center.
The ball hit in the vicinity of the yellow line at the top of the wall and caromed back into play with Wiemer scoring easily. Manager Craig Counsell asked for a crew chief review which indeed confirmed the hit was a double, and Milwaukee failed to tack on any additional runs from there.
Peguero struck out the first two batters he faced – which just so happened to be Cleveland’s best in José Ramírez and Josh Naylor – but hit the next one after getting ahead in the count, 1-2.
The right-hander then recovered to get Myles Straw to foul out to Victor Caratini, ending the game and improving Milwaukee's record to 5-1 in extra-inning games on the season.
Burnes, who combined with Josh Hader to throw the franchise's second no-hitter the last time the Brewers were in Cleveland on Sept. 11, 2021, allowed his first hit to open the bottom of the second and it was a big one as Naylor homered to right-center to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead.
But after a quiet day Saturday, Milwaukee's offense had a quick answer against Aaron Civale in the third.
Wiemer started things with a leadoff single, then Yelich and Miller doubled on consecutive pitches. After Willy Adames popped out, Rowdy Tellez singled to right and the Brewers were in front by a score of 3-1.
A tack-on tally in the fourth got the Brewers to the four-run mark – they were a major-league-best 35-6 when scoring four or more coming into the day – as Andruw Monasterio drew a leadoff walk, went to third on a Blake Perkins single and scored on a Wiemer sacrifice fly.
Coming off one of the worst starts of his career in his last outing, Burnes allowed a baserunner in each inning following the second but kept the Guardians from threatening until the sixth when a leadoff walk issued to Ramírez opened the door to a tie ballgame.
With one out, Andrés Giménez tripled to the gap to score Ramírez. Tyler Freeman walked, then Burnes spiked a changeup for a wild pitch that allowed Giménez to scamper home. Will Brennan singled to left, Freeman scored and just like that it was 4-4.
Burnes induced a popup for the second out but after No. 9 hitter Bo Naylor singled in his second straight at-bat Hoby Milner was brought on and retired Steven Kwan.
For the second straight outing Burnes tied a season high by allowing eight hits and tied a season low with three strikeouts while failing to go six innings.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Owen Miller, Elvis Peguero each deliver in 10th inning for Brewers
