Brewers win another tight game with walk-off walk

MILWAUKEE -- This was taking the term “walk-off” to a whole new level.

The Brewers walked away with a 6-5 win over the Mariners on Friday night at American Family Field after coaxing four walks in the bottom of the ninth inning from Seattle reliever Andrés Mu?oz, boosting Milwaukee’s record to 5-1 overall, including 3-0 in one-run games, and easing the sting of Abner Uribe’s own troubles earlier in the inning.

Mu?oz, a tough right-hander who can throw a triple-digit fastball, didn’t always miss the strike zone by much, but he missed it enough to make it a unique night for the Brewers. At least back to 1974 with available data, the Brewers had never walked-off an opponent with four walks and no hits, according to MLB.com research. The closest comparison came April 9, 2018, when the Brewers scored a run in the top of the 10th inning with four walks and no hits, and held on to beat the Cardinals.

The Brewers hadn’t won a game on any walk-off walk since July 2, 2018, against the Twins. That is, until William Contreras flipped his bat in the air after taking a slider just off the plate for the winning Ball 4 with the bases loaded.

“That was awesome,” Brewers starter Freddy Peralta said. ”Our offense, they took great [plate appearances], man.”

Brewers manager Pat Murphy echoed that sentiment while adding praise for home-plate umpire Derek Thomas, who maintained a tight but accurate strike zone all night.

“That’s the name of the game,” Murphy said. “It’s a simple part of the game, but strikes and balls are what it’s about. Swing at strikes and take balls. Especially when a guy has triple digits and a great slider.”

The pitcher in Peralta couldn’t help but feel for Mu?oz.

“I think we’ve all been in that situation. It’s not easy,” Peralta said. “I think just learn about the process, and know the situation and breathe and all that, but still, it’s hard. You don’t want to be in that situation, ever. Especially because we were in the ninth ready to take the game.”

The Brewers were in that situation because they’d lost a pair of earlier leads. Willy Adames and Oliver Dunn homered for Milwaukee -- Adames for his first home run of the season and Dunn the first of his Major League career -- while Peralta breezed through five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. Then he labored through most of a three-run sixth in which the Mariners were all over his signature fastball.

Murphy said he was certain the Mariners could see Peralta gripping his pitches in his glove and were passing signs to the hitter -- a perfectly legal part of the game. But as Peralta discussed his outing with reporters, that was news to him.

“You never know,” Peralta said. “I have to probably check.”

Christian Yelich reclaimed a lead with a 431-foot homer in the bottom of the sixth, and the Brewers grew their advantage to 5-3 for Uribe, the hard-throwing 23-year-old who is closing games for Milwaukee while All-Star Devin Williams heals a back injury.

Unlike Mu?oz, Uribe’s problem was getting too much contact while getting saddled with his first blown save of the season. The inning began with three consecutive hits, including a run-scoring double from former Brewers infielder Luis Urías. Uribe lost the lead on Julio Rodríguez’s groundout, but he managed to keep the score tied at 5-5.

“Abner showed resiliency,” Murphy said. “He didn’t implode. He’s a young kid, just got to the big leagues last year and doesn’t have a year in, but he kept his composure. I was really happy for him.”

Call it a silver lining, just like in the bottom of the ninth inning when Brewers 20-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio was called out on strikes with the bases loaded. Murphy conceded that “it sounds crazy” for a manager to call that a positive, but he views it as a learning experience.

It helped that the Brewers had just won the game. Sal Frelick started bottom of the ninth with a walk before Jake Bauers (cold off the bench as a pinch-hitter) and Brice Turang (who was trying to bunt) did the same. Mu?oz briefly rebounded to strike out Chourio -- leaving Chourio 0-for-5 in the first hitless game of his budding career -- before Contreras took the winning walk.

“So far, we’ve played a lot of tight baseball games,” said Dunn, another Brewers rookie. “I think it’s something we’re good at. I think over the course of the year, we’re going to end up being one of the teams that’s super good in those close games.”