Brewers discard White Sox for 3rd straight win
MILWAUKEE -- A big lead slipped away from the Brewers on Monday night, but Elian Herrera made sure the disappointment was short-lived.
Going deep for the second straight game, Herrera hit a tiebreaking, two-run home run off former Brewer Zach Duke in the bottom of the eighth inning, and Khris Davis added a 448-foot solo blast two batters later for a 10-7 win over the White Sox at Miller Park. The Brewers won for the third straight game, and the seventh time in 10 games, despite losing a lead that was as wide as 6-0 after four innings and 7-2 after the sixth.
"You have to find different ways to win," said Brewers manager Craig Counsell. "It's not going to be the same game every night. We answered. We didn't get down, we answered."
Video: Must C Crushed: Davis destroys a solo homer
Carlos Gomez homered in the first inning as the Brewers built a lead against White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija, and Gomez tripled and scored on an error in the fifth inning before the White Sox started chipping away. They scored three runs in a seventh inning that included an error charged to Brewers second baseman Scooter Gennett, and two more in the top of the eighth for a 7-7 tie on Adam Eaton's single. Eaton had four hits and his first two RBIs.
When Herrera and Davis homered in the next half-inning and Francisco Rodriguez recorded his seventh save, the White Sox fell to 2-12 away from home.
"It doesn't feel good to give up the lead right after we battled so hard to get back into the game," said Duke. "Unfortunately, my location was off today. I left a couple of pitches up and they hammered them."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
New order: Counsell authored his first significant lineup shuffle, putting Gerardo Parra in the leadoff spot, bumping Ryan Braun up to second and Adam Lind to third, and moving the old leadoff man, Gomez, into the cleanup hole. It paid immediate dividends; Parra singled, stole second and scored on Lind's fielder's choice. Gomez followed with a two-run home run, his first since returning from the disabled list. More >
Video: CWS@MIL: C. Gomez launches a two-run shot in the 1st
Missing glovework: The Brewers squared up Samardzija over the first two innings, but the right-hander didn't get much help behind him. The first inning began with a bad-hop single over Micah Johnson's glove, Alexei Ramirez's fielding error and a slowly turned grounder from Lind that resulted in a run scored and just one out recorded.
Video: CWS@MIL: Lind plates the first run with a forceout
Sudden struggles: Brewers starter Wily Peralta worked the first four innings on 46 pitches, without allowing a ball past the infield. Chicago third baseman Conor Gillaspie changed that fact with a single to center field leading off the fifth, and Geovany Soto followed two batters later with a long blast to left-center. The White Sox eventually loaded the bases with two outs, before Jose Abreu hit into an inning-ending fielder's choice at second. The inning required 38 pitches of Peralta, who was out of the game after the sixth.
"Sometimes that happens," Peralta said. "You are in a good rhythm and sometimes you make a bad pitch and you have a couple of men on base and start missing pitches. But I was able to settle down and get a quick one in the sixth."
Video: CWS@MIL: Soto belts a two-run homer to left-center
Little League homer: Gomez didn't surrender his speed when he left the leadoff spot. In the fifth inning, he circled the bases on a triple to the right-field corner and an error charged to Chicago outfielder Avisail Garcia, who missed the cutoff man. Gomez celebrated after scoring with a headfirst slide, and celebrated again after White Sox manager Robin Ventura's challenge of the play at the plate was unsuccessful. The call stood, and the Brewers' lead extended to 7-2. More >
Video: CWS@MIL: C. Gomez triples, scores on error
Gomez with the glove: The White Sox tied the game in the eighth inning with RBI singles from Adam LaRoche and Eaton against Brewers setup man Jonathan Broxton, but Gomez prevented at least another run when he made an over-the-shoulder catch of Melky Cabrera's drive to center field, ending the inning.
"That's probably two more runs, so it was a huge play," Counsell said.
Video: CWS@MIL: C. Gomez makes the over-the-shoulder catch
QUOTABLE
"I feel sexy hitting [cleanup]. It's a different feeling. I go to the plate like, 'I'm the man.'" -- Gomez, on seeing his name penciled into the four-hole
UPON REVIEW
A half-inning before Ventura's challenge was denied, Counsell improved to 2-0 on his own challenges when the umpires overturned a close play at first base involving Johnson. He initially was called safe on a bouncer to first base, with Peralta covering and appearing to miss the bag. Upon review, Peralta got a toe on first base just before Johnson did.
Video: CWS@MIL: Safe call overturned in the 5th inning
WHAT'S NEXT
White Sox: Chris Sale followed the same path as Jeff Samardzija, by pitching against the Tigers and then beginning his five-game suspension Thursday. Sale, who is on a streak of two straight non-quality starts for the first time since the 2013 season, will start Tuesday night against the White Sox at 7:05 p.m. CT at Miller Park.
Brewers: Mike Fiers will take the mound Tuesday night for the second game of the series. Fiers has yet to find the sort of sustained success he enjoyed during two previous semi-permanent stints in the Brewers' starting rotation. Only one of his first six starts met the definition of "quality" -- at least six innings with three or fewer earned runs -- and the team is 2-4 when Fiers takes the mound.
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