MILWAUKEE – Martín Pérez got a new ball and took a second to regroup on the American Family Field mound. For the second time Saturday afternoon, Atlanta’s southpaw found himself struggling to put away Jake Bauers.
The Brewers right fielder had just fouled off the seventh consecutive pitch of his third-inning at-bat, a battle that got progressively more irritating for Pérez. Over and over he tried to get Bauers out, only to watch him spoil pitch after pitch.
As Pérez gathered himself on the bump, he wound up to throw his 12th offering of the plate appearance, heaving a four-seamer to the up-and-away corner of the strike zone.
Bauers got his bat on that one, too. Pérez initially didn’t even bother to look to see where it went. He knew that ball wasn’t landing in play, either.
Instead of dribbling it into foul territory, Bauers blasted this one a Statcast-projected 413 feet over the center-field wall for a tiebreaking two-run homer. His arduous at-bat tied for the longest in the Majors this season to end in a home run, and it gave Milwaukee more than enough fuel in a series-clinching 4-1 win over the Braves.
And, in fairness to Pérez, it also came with fair warning considering how his first duel with Bauers went.
Pérez quickly got ahead of him 0-2 in the first inning, only for Bauers to work his way back to a full count. Just as he did in the third, Bauers continuously refused to strike out, fouling off four straight pitches. Jackson Chourio, who’d reached on a leadoff walk, continued to sprint toward second on each of Pérez’s full-count windups, trudging back to first after every foul ball.
Bauers eventually worked his way to an 11-pitch walk, bringing an early spike to Pérez’s pitch count and prompting an early mound visit. Pérez eventually threw 97 pitches over his four-inning start, 24% of which came against Bauers.
Frustrating as that might have been for Pérez, at least Bauers was polite enough to let him know early that he wasn’t going to be an easy out on Saturday.
He just so happened to send that message a little louder come the third inning.