MILWAUKEE -- Pat Murphy strode toward his ace Freddy Peralta on Friday night at American Family Field, and it appeared the starter’s night was done. Peralta thought so.
Peralta had just hit a batter and surrendered a single that put the go-ahead runner on third base with two outs in the sixth inning of a tied game. He was at 92 pitches. A reliever, righty Grant Anderson, was not only ready, but actually took a step through the open bullpen door in left-center field only to see catcher William Contreras wave him off.
Murphy wasn’t on the mound to make a pitching change.
He was there to give his ace a chance to change the manager’s mind.
“I think everybody in the ballpark thought we were going to take him out,” Murphy said. “I know that it was a moment for him that he could get through and maybe change some other moments in the future. So, I thought it was worth the gamble.”
It was the turning point of a 3-2 win over the Cardinals, since Peralta escaped the threat by retiring Cardinals star Nolan Arenado with a popout on the very next pitch, and then the Brewers broke the tie by hustling for a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to beat their division rivals for the second straight night.
“It was a great feeling,” Peralta said. “Even if the result was going to be negative, I feel good that he let me out there. It means a lot for me.”
Peralta picked up the win after holding St. Louis to one run on four hits in six innings, with one walk and six strikeouts while lowering his ERA to 2.60 through 15 starts this season. It was his first win in nearly a month (the last was May 18 against the Twins) and it snapped a streak of consecutive team losses in Peralta’s starts that hinged on a pitching decision.
On June 3 in Cincinnati, Peralta was at 92 pitches after six innings when the Brewers asked him for a seventh in a 2-2 game. He walked a batter and surrendered a double before reliever Rob Zastryzny gave up the decisive run (that was charged to Peralta) in a 4-2 loss.
Five days later against the Padres at home, Peralta was at 90 pitches through six innings of a scoreless game, and looked poised to face San Diego’s right-handed slugger Manny Machado leading off the seventh before four of the next five hitters were scheduled to be lefties. But Peralta didn’t come out to the mound. Instead, Zastryzny did, and Machado launched a home run for a 1-0 Brewers loss.
That was the backdrop for Murphy’s visit on Friday.
Of all the Cardinals’ hitters, it had to be Arenado due to hit. He already had a fifth-inning RBI double on the scorecard, giving him 11 hits including four homers in 38 career at-bats against Peralta before this point in the game.
“I said, ‘Hey, Freddy, this guy’s been really good against you. He’s a great player,’” Murphy said. “He said, ‘I got it. I’m telling you, I got it.’”
In Peralta’s telling, it was an even more direct challenge.
“He came and told me that probably the best idea was to bring in Anderson,” Peralta said. “I [said] I was feeling good enough to face Arenado. I asked him to keep me out there.”
Murphy turned and retreated. Peralta fired a 98.2 mph fastball -- his second-hardest pitch all night. Arenado surprised him by swinging at the first pitch and popped it up in foul ground just beyond the Brewers dugout. First baseman Rhys Hoskins squeezed the inning-ending out while reaching over the dugout steps, and Peralta had his escape.
“As soon as I saw that [pop up], I said, ‘Please, stay in,’” Peralta said. “It wasn’t easy to catch that ball.”
The Brewers rewarded Peralta by using their speed and aggressive brand of baserunning to score twice in the bottom of the inning against St. Louis starter Erick Fedde, with William Contreras’ sacrifice fly giving Milwaukee the lead and Contreras his second RBI of the night.
There were risks for both of the runners who scored. Sal Frelick, who scored twice and had two more hits Friday, stole a base. Jackson Chourio then singled and took second on a throw, only making it by a hair. When he scored what would prove the winning run on Christian Yelich’s bouncer, Chourio was safe by another hair.
“We have to be the team that plays like that. We have to,” Murphy said. “Caution isn’t going to be something we worry about.”
Sometimes, a risk pays dividends.
It did for Peralta.
“Good for Freddy,” said Brewers closer Trevor Megill after holding on for save No. 14 of the season. “He’s speaking up for himself, he believes he can get a guy out and he went and did it. That’s big confidence for a manager, and it’s great to see, honestly.”