PHOENIX -- Kyle Harrison has been awfully dependable for the Brewers this season.
Things didn’t go his way on Friday night, but Milwaukee’s bullpen made sure to pick him up.
Jackson Chourio broke a tie with an infield single in the 11th inning, Garrett Mitchell homered in his second straight game and the Brewers beat the Diamondbacks, 7-4, in 11 innings at Chase Field.
Brice Turang finished 3-for-6 with two RBIs, helping Milwaukee to its fourth win in five games. The Brewers have won five of eight to open up a brutal stretch of 18 games in a 17-day span, which includes a doubleheader in St. Louis on Tuesday. Friday’s game could have spelled trouble.
For one, Harrison pitched just 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and five hits while striking out three. The 24-year-old lefty had little trouble the first time through Arizona’s batting order, but he ran into trouble in the third inning. He threw 38 pitches in that frame, Arizona tied the game and his night was ultimately over before it even seemed to start.
It was Harrison’s shortest outing since tossing 2 1/3 innings against the Athletics on June 8.
“This is a lot of games in a short amount of time that we have, and it sucks that I went out there and did the job I did today. That's pathetic,” Harrison said. “I need to go deeper in games, and I work my butt off to do that.”
Reliever Chad Patrick needed just one pitch to get the Brewers out of the third, though, and the rest of Milwaukee’s bullpen followed suit until the game was out of reach.
Patrick worked 3 1/3 innings, his longest outing since throwing the same number of outs on June 17 against Cleveland. He threw 34 pitches, 23 for strikes, and allowed just one hit while striking out two.
Not lost on him, either, was the ability to help lift Harrison following a dicey start.
“Kyle's picked us up all season,” Patrick said. “So, we wanted to return the favor, and we stayed in the game and pitched our butts off.”
In all, five Milwaukee relievers combined for 8 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run over that span. Patrick, Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill and Grant Anderson effectively shut down the Diamondbacks’ potent offense.
“They were great,” manager Pat Murphy said of the bullpen. “We could see that Harrison was not filling up the zone like he normally does. He got behind in the count a lot.”
Neither team scored after the third inning until Chourio’s infield single scored Blake Perkins from third base in the 11th. D-backs pitcher Ryan Thompson’s diving throw home was well off the mark, allowing Cooper Pratt to score, as well. Turang immediately followed with an RBI single, effectively sealing the game.
In the end, the Brewers escaped with their 54th win of the season, which ranks second in the Majors behind the Dodgers, despite a game full of highlight-reel plays and head-scratching gaffes.
“I think it's important to win games like that,” Mitchell said. “Those games are going to happen, and finding ways to win those games when we're not doing exactly what we would want to do.”
Mitchell, in fact, opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the second inning, blasting the first pitch he saw a Statcast-projected 435 feet to center field. The homer was upheld following a review, marking the center fielder’s second dinger in as many days.
Harrison never made it out of the bottom half of the inning, though, falling victim to the top of Arizona’s order. No matter, because the Brewers bullpen showed up in force, keeping the Diamondbacks at bay for the rest of the evening.
Patrick led the charge.
“It was huge,” Murphy said. “That’s who he is.”