Urías, Hiura combine in Brewers' walk-off win

MILWAUKEE -- He’s still not getting many hits. On Monday, he didn’t get any hits. But Keston Hiura’s fingerprints were all over the Brewers’ 3-2 win in 10 innings over the Tigers.

• Box score

There were two leaping catches at first base to save accuracy-challenged Luis Urías from throwing errors, and a lunging catch for a double play. There was a running catch in left field after Lorenzo Cain’s latest leg injury forced Hiura to the outfield for the first time in his professional career. And, for the second straight home game, there was Hiura’s successful sacrifice bunt in the 10th to set up a Brewers victory.

That pushed the winning run to third base ahead of Urías’ first career walk-off RBI on a long single to the warning track in right-center field. It gave the Brewers a five-game winning streak and had manager Craig Counsell feeling a sense of déjà vu.

“It was literally the same four players that were going to be involved in the inning,” said Counsell, referring to the 10th inning of a 6-5 win over the Padres last week that began with a Hiura bunt and ended with Jackie Bradley Jr.’s walk-off single. “[Omar] Narváez on second, Keston up and Luis and Jackie behind him. It’s situational, but I think Keston shows you he’s a good bunter and so I feel like the chance for success on the sac bunt is way up with Keston. So that’s a good reason to do it right there.”

The Brewers almost never ask their position players to bunt, but Counsell made an exception based in part on conversations with Hiura’s college coach at UC-Irvine, who years ago lauded Hiura’s bunting ability.

Would Counsell take a different approach if Hiura were swinging the bat with any kind of consistency? Maybe. After going 0-for-3 on Monday, Hiura is slashing .133/.227/.224, and his nine-game demotion to Triple-A Nashville earlier this month hasn’t made a difference so far. In seven games since returning, Hiura is 1-for-19. The hit was a single in his first game back.

But Monday’s bunt gave the Brewers what they needed.

“It definitely changed the game completely,” Urías said. “If Narváez would have stayed at second, they would have been deeper in the outfield and I wouldn't have had a [hit]. So I think that changed everything.”

It was just one of a series of moments for which Hiura’s impact wasn’t reflected in the box score.

Start at first base. Hiura snagged high throws from Urías to end the third inning with a runner in scoring position and again to start the fourth, when Hiura went way up in the air and came down on the bag just in time to get the first out of Corbin Burnes’ 1-2-3 inning. In the fifth, the Tigers had a runner at first with one out when Robbie Grossman pulled a line drive along the first-base line and Hiura caught it while falling to the dirt. In one motion he tagged the bag for an inning-ending double play.

Two frames later, Hiura found himself in the outfield for the first time since college. Counsell had just made a double switch after the Tigers tied the game at 2 off Brewers reliever Trevor Richards when Cain alerted the dugout that he also had to exit after tweaking his right hamstring while making a running catch in center field.

So, it became a double-double switch. And since Counsell had already removed Avisaíl García before losing Cain for the day -- and had already burned utility man Daniel Robertson as a pinch-hitter -- it was up to Hiura to take over in left field. Naturally, the ball found Hiura right away, and he made a nice running catch on a Harold Castro fly ball to strand a runner and preserve the tie.

“He told me something about playing center field [in college],” Urías said. “To play left field today proved everything to me, because I didn't believe him at all.

“He did an amazing job defensively, and also to be able to put the bunt down, that was huge.”

Willy Adames hit a two-run home run for the Brewers, continuing a surge at the plate that coincided with his trade to Milwaukee from Tampa Bay, and Burnes took another no-decision after striking out seven batters in six innings and allowing his only run on a single at the end of a pesky, 10-pitch at-bat against former Brewer Jonathan Schoop.

The Brewers’ five-game winning streak has been a team effort -- including efforts beyond the hit column.

"Keston has been good,” Burnes said. “He's putting the work in and he's just trying to be the best team player he can be. It's one of those things; I think it's eventually going to turn for him. And I think the team will be a lot better and in a lot better place once he's swinging the bat. He's a huge impact bat.”