Crew walks it off with 9-run outburst to back Miz's (10 K's) return to form

MILWAUKEE -- Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook can’t prove it, but he’s learned from experience that the best conversations among men happen on the move. So it has become his habit to take a walk with a player when it’s time for an important conversation, like the stroll he and associate pitching and strategy coach Jim Henderson had with rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski last week at Wrigley Field.

They circled the warning track multiple times on the day after Misiorowski’s third consecutive dud. He’d began and ended a five-inning outing against the Cubs with stretches of six-up, six-down, but was undone by a wild, four-batter stretch in the third inning that sent Milwaukee to its first three-game losing streak in more than three months, and left Misiorowski with a 9.82 ERA over his last three outings.

“At the core of it,” Hook said Tuesday before Misiorowski took the mound again, “I want him to know that we’re in this thing together.”

Consider this a step forward, which would be so important for a Brewers team counting on its 23-year-old rookie flamethrower to help them play deep into October that, even with the dramatics of Isaac Collins’ walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 9-8 win over the D-backs at American Family Field, it was worth starting at the beginning.

The night began with Misiorowski, who again was saddled with a crooked number -- he hung a slider for a two-out, three-run homer in the fourth -- but was otherwise in command for five innings, striking out 10 for the second time in his 10 Major League starts. For most of the evening, he looked once again like a pitcher who could be a reliable October weapon.

“It feels like everything is finally clicking,” Misiorowski said.

Brewers hitters provided plenty of run support and wound up needing all of it after the D-backs rallied back to tie the game at 8 in the eighth inning after deficits of 6-0 in the third and 8-3 in the sixth, the latest signs of wear for Brewers pitching staff in the middle of 19 games over 18 days. But Milwaukee came through in the bottom of the ninth when William Contreras singled and Christian Yelich and Andrew Vaughn walked against D-backs right-hander Juan Morillo to load the bases for Collins’ walk-off sacrifice fly.

So many twists and turns took the Brewers to that moment. Contreras and Brice Turang each hit two-run home runs to account for much of the early damage, Contreras’ homer his seventh of a power-packed August, and Turang his ninth of the month. Back came the D-backs with three runs in the seventh inning when Collins missed a catchable ball in the left-field corner, and two more in the eighth when left-hander Jared Koenig was running out of steam. But manager Pat Murphy delayed making a move from Koenig to newcomer Shelby Miller because three of his top relievers -- Nick Mears, Abner Uribe and closer Trevor Megill -- were all down for the night.

Milwaukee’s bullpen usage at the moment, Murphy said, “is a grave concern, like it is for most teams right now.”

Eventually, Arizona tied the game and Murphy had no choice but to use Miller, even though it meant pitching him over multiple innings for the first time since June 30 when he pitched for Arizona, before he went down with a forearm injury. Miller responded by giving the Brewers four outs with an assist from shortstop Andruw Monasterio on a diving stop and off-balance throw for the second out of a scoreless ninth.

“I think that was a ballgame saver, in my eyes,” Miller said.

Murphy’s imprint was evident as well. He followed that play by intentionally walking Gabriel Moreno to bring up the pitcher’s spot, which forced the D-backs, who’d abandoned the designated hitter amid a series of earlier moves, to make a change from a lefty who has given Milwaukee trouble, Andrew Saalfrank, to righty Morillo for the Brewers’ winning rally in the ninth. The win pushed the Brewers 6 1/2 games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central after the Cubs’ loss in San Francisco.

What has Miller learned about these Brewers since coming over at the Trade Deadline?

“There’s no quit at all,” Miller said.

That extends to Misiorowski, whose line against the D-backs -- five innings, four hits, three earned runs, one walk, 10 strikeouts on 93 pitches -- might have been better had the Brewers made a play for him leading off the fourth. Misiorowski had not allowed a hit before Ketel Marte hit a bouncer to the right side of the infield that drew Vaughn away from the first-base bag. By the time he realized it was Turang’s ball, Vaughn didn’t have enough time to get back to first base to receive the throw, and Marte was safe on an infield single.

Three batters later, Pavin Smith extended the inning with a two-out double. Moreno then smashed the hanging slider for a home run that cut the Brewers’ lead to 6-3.

But Misiorowski made Jake McCarthy his eighth strikeout victim to end that inning, then struck out two more in a scoreless fifth before skipping off the mound and pumping his fist. It was the first time he worked into a fifth inning since before the All-Star break.

“He didn’t derail,” Murphy said.

Was Misiorowski’s level of intent any higher going into Tuesday night, considering how the previous starts had unraveled?

“I mean, it’s the same,” he said. “I don’t think I change my intent on any game [or] these last two, three. But it feels good to feel like I’m back.”