Brewers earn 19th consecutive victory when Priester takes mound

MILWAUKEE – There would be no perfect game.

No no-hitter.

But with Quinn Priester on the mound, the Brewers were bound to find a way to win.

Priester’s bid for a perfect game had devolved into a deficit when he exited in the sixth inning, before Brewers rookie Caleb Durbin hit a tying single in the bottom half of that frame and Christian Yelich logged his 100th RBI of the season in a go-ahead three-run seventh that sent Milwaukee to a 5-2 win over the Angels on Thursday night and a 19th consecutive victory when Priester takes the mound.

That remarkable streak includes 16 Priester starts plus three “bulk” outings behind an opener, going all the way back to the right-hander’s six two-run innings of relief on May 30 in Philadelphia. It’s tied for the second-longest streak of appearances in team victories (minimum 50 percent starts) in the last 125 seasons, matching Carl Hubbell’s 19-game run for the Giants in 1936 and one short of Roger Clemens’ 20-game streak with the Yankees in 2001.

“There’s something about the way [Priester] looks, the way he composes himself, his body language,” Durbin said. “It’s easy to feed off of. … He’s just competing like a bulldog.”

Count Priester among the big reasons why the Brewers (94-59) are 35 games over .500 for the first time in franchise history as they close in on winning the National League Central for the third straight season and fourth time in five years. A three-game sweep of the Angels, coupled with the Cubs’ (88-65) shutout loss in Cincinnati on Thursday, gave the Brewers a six-game lead in the division with nine to play. Any combination of four more Milwaukee victories or Chicago losses will do it.

Can Priester even remember the last time the Brewers lost when he pitched?

“No, but at the same time, I’m still invested in games I’m not pitching, so I know what it feels like when we come in here and we’re not listening to music and having a good time,” he said. “It’s a team game, and they’ve picked me up all season. Then there’s games like today when I can help out more than normal.”

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From the start, it was clear he would not need much in the way of run support. Priester struck out the first six Angels hitters he faced and eight of the first nine while starting his outing 12 up, 12 down with nine strikeouts. He was working so quickly that after one pop out, center fielder Blake Perkins returned to his position and turned around to see Priester already delivering the next pitch.

“That’s on me,” said Perkins, who would make a great defensive play in the seventh when he robbed Chris Taylor with a warning-track catch that was particularly sweet for Brewers personnel and fans who remember Taylor’s catch for the Dodgers in the 2018 NLCS. “But it’s great. It just feels like you’re never out of the action. He keeps you light on your feet.”

By the third inning or so, Priester was well aware of what he was working on.

“It’s easy to go out and go, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got a chance to do this,’” he said. “I think it’s only human to think those things. There’s things that cross the mind, but then it’s like, ‘Let that pass through and get back to getting the next out.’ Three innings isn’t the job. The job is five, six, seven, eight innings.”

But Priester lost his chance for perfection when Jo Adell took a five-pitch walk to open the fifth inning, then he lost both a 1-0 Brewers lead and a bid for MLB’s first no-hitter this season when Angels third baseman Luis Rengifo hit a 2-1 slider for a two-run home run.

It was the first homer off Priester since he served up solo shots to Ke'Bryan Hayes and Spencer Steer in Cincinnati on Aug. 16, but the Brewers came back to win in 11 innings for their club-record 14th straight victory.

On Thursday, they mounted another comeback.

After Durbin’s second RBI of the night tied it in the sixth, and Perkins’ terrific catch kept it tied in the seventh when the Angels had a pair of runners in scoring position, the Brewers took the lead in a seventh inning that started with a Jackson Chourio double and included RBIs from Turang, Yelich and Andrew Vaughn. Yelich pushed to 100 RBIs for the first time since 2018, and the second time in his career, when Angels left fielder Taylor Ward misplayed a warning-track fly ball into a run-scoring double.

The RBI milestone means a lot coming off back surgery. Another division crown will mean even more.

“I’m just proud of the guys on the team, especially our young players, because the demand is high here,” Yelich said. “There definitely were growing pains at the beginning, but as a team, we all know that the stuff that’s harped on and demanded and practiced, it’s all for the good the team.”