Blake Perkins' hit in the 10th-inning delivers another walk-off victory for Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers needed to put in a little overtime on Saturday night.

But their persistence paid off in the form of a 3-2, 10-inning victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at American Family Field, putting a happy face on what had been a frustrating affair up to that point.

Rookie Blake Perkins was the hero, scoring the tying run in the ninth after some daring baserunning and then driving in the winner with a bases-loaded single in the 10th that gave the Brewers their first win in 48 tries this season when trailing after eight innings.

"I’ve had, what, two or three opportunities this year?" said Perkins, whose hit pushed Milwaukee's lead in the National League Central to 1 1/2 games over the Cincinnati Reds with the hard-charging Chicago Cubs now looming only 2 1/2 games out in third.

"I’m just happy I came through for the guys tonight because that was a big win for us and a big confidence boost for me," Perkins continued. "Those are games we need to win – especially with the pitching that we had. Those guys did a great job of keeping us in the game, so it was nice to get that one."

After tying the game against Pittsburgh closer David Bednar in the ninth Milwaukee scored the decisive run against Angel Perdomo, a former Brewer.

Perdomo struck out Brian Anderson to start, then intentionally walked Mark Canha to set up a lefty vs. lefty matchup with Christian Yelich. Yelich grounded out to first, then William Contreras was put on to load the bases for Blake Perkins.

Perkins got ahead in the count, 2-0, then on Perdomo's fourth offering he lined a single through the hole on the right side and into right field for Milwaukee's fifth walk-off win.

Of those five, four have come courtesy of rookies Garrett Mitchell (April 5 vs. the New York Mets), Joey Wiemer (May 13 vs. the Kansas City Royals and June 6 vs. the Baltimore Orioles) and now Perkins.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, had been 44-0 when leading after eight innings.

"Luckily, I had seen him before in the past so I kind of knew how he’d like to attack," said Perkins. "I was just trying to look for something out over. I knew the 4-hole was wide-open and that was my approach, just to go the other way.

"It’s not often that your plans come to fruition the way you want them to, but they did tonight."

Added manager Craig Counsell: "When that inning started it trended to me that Blake was going to come up in it with the lefty in and you knew they weren't going to pitch to William. So, credit to him for putting himself in a big spot and putting a good swing on the baseball."

Brewers tied the game in the ninth inning

The bottom of the ninth began with a Carlos Santana single off former teammate Bednar, and he was replaced on the bases by Perkins.

Perkins then tagged and went to second on a fly out to right field by Willy Adames, a risky move that paid off when Bednar then fired a wild pitch with Sal Frelick at the plate.

"It's like a version of a stolen base, really," Counsell said. "He made an aggressive baserunning play, and it paid off. That's what baserunning is, it's risk. Good baserunning involves risk."

Asked who the fastest player on the team is, Counsell went with Yelich. But Perkins definitely has to be in the conversation.

"Just trusting the read I got, trusting my speed," said Perkins. "Making him make a perfect throw, pretty much. It is very risky, but I feel like in that situation that’s my job – to create something on the basepaths, and I’m glad I was safe."

Another rookie, Sal Frelick, then lined a single to center to score Perkins from third, giving Bednar his first blown save since April 11 and the Brewers new life.

"I had no worries. I knew that he had a great chance of getting the job done," Perkins said of Frelick. "He's a good ballplayer and he puts the bat on the ball, and that's really all you need in that situation because I'm going on contact.

"Hit the ball on the ground or in the air, and I'll be scoring."

Devin Williams (6-3) tossed a 1-2-3 10th, striking out former teammate Andrew McCutchen with the "ghost" runner at third.

Corbin Burnes almost had a no-hitter through five innings

The right-hander was one over the minimum with two outs in the fifth -- a third-inning walk accounting for the lone baserunner -- when things quickly went awry.

The trouble was caused by the bottom of the Pirates' lineup, as No. 7 hitter Liover Peguero singled and stole second, Alika Williams walked and Jason Delay lined a gapper to left-center that scored both runners.

The sixth was also spotty for Burnes, who sandwiched a pair of walks around a pair of flyouts to left, a sequence that brought Ke'Bryan Hayes to the plate and Counsell to the mound.

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After a few words for his starting pitcher, Counsell turned around and headed back to the dugout. Burnes rewarded his skipper by getting Hayes looking at a called third strike, ending his night at 107 pitches.

"I just wanted to see what he looked like and have a short conversation with him," Counsell said. "I don't like taking Corbin out. If he's got gas in the tank, he's going."

"He just came out and I told him I had them. Let me have the ball," is how Burnes remembered the moment. By getting that last out, he recorded his 16th quality start and sixth in a row. "It wasn't pretty, but I got him. I appreciate the trust."

It was the seventh straight start in which Burnes allowed four or fewer hits -- Pittsburgh managed two -- but his total of four walks tied a season high as Burnes threw 61% cutters but generated only 12 whiffs resulting in five strikeouts.

"Yeah, not good," is how Burnes characterized his outing. "Obviously, the cutter command was not good at all. They came out early swinging and being aggressive, and then once I realized I didn't have the good command they kind of went into non-swing mode and tried to work the counts.

"We just couldn't capitalize on it."

More offensive frustration

After being unable to break through against Quinn Priester and his 9.19 ERA coming into Friday's 8-4 loss, the Brewers had more trouble with another anonymous Pirates starter -- this one left-hander Bailey Falter.

He came in 0-7 with a 5.13 ERA but limited Milwaukee to just one hit over four innings while scattering six hits and a walk. Two of those hits came in succession from Victor Caratini and Brice Turang to open the bottom of the fifth, leading to Falter's exit.

"His fastball was really good. It just kind of got on us," Counsell said. "We knew that, but he located his fastball in, he's got great extension and it just got on us enough where we didn't square it up necessarily."

Joey Wiemer struck out against Andre Jackson and Christian Yelich drove in Caratini with a groundout, then William Contreras followed with another strikeout to continue Milwaukee's recent struggles to score with the bases loaded.

Jackson, who was recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis on Friday, retired all seven batters he faced as the frustration continued to mount for the Brewers offense.

"Jackson did a great job," Counsell said. "He shut us down. He was excellent. I thought they pitched really well tonight. We had a great inning against a great closer, and everybody had a really good at-bat against Bednar."

Pittsburgh had retired 12 consecutive Milwaukee batters until Santana's leadoff single in the ninth.

Brewers schedule coming up

Sunday: Pirates at Brewers, 1:10 p.m. Pittsburgh RHP Johan Oviedo (5-11, 4.42) vs. Milwaukee RHP Brandon Woodruff (1-0, 0.79). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Blake Perkins' hit in 10-inning delivers walk-off victory for Brewers