PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks kept pace with the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers for most of Friday night, riding a bullpen that delivered multiple scoreless frames and a handful of highlight defensive plays. But the run that would have put the home side ahead never came when it mattered, and a four-run bottom of the 11th inning turned a tight contest into a 7-4 loss.
Brewers baserunner slides into second as a Diamondbacks infielder attempts the tag during Friday’s extra-innings matchup in Phoenix.
Arizona’s relievers threw 6.2 scoreless innings spanning the middle and late portions of the game, and manager Torey Lovullo leaned on his bullpen by departing with rookie starter Jose Cabrera in the fourth inning. The decision to go to the pen early paid dividends for long stretches, but the ninth- and 10th-inning scoring chances that might have produced a walk-off or decisive go-ahead run were squandered. The club came into the game 43-44 overall and fell to 2-5 in extra-inning decisions this season; in each of those five extra-inning defeats, Arizona failed to score in the 10th.
Ketel Marte sparked a ninth-inning threat by stealing second base, but the chance died when Geraldo Perdomo grounded out to end the rally. Perdomo later began the 10th on second with Corbin Carroll leading off, and Milwaukee elected to intentionally walk Carroll to get to Gabriel Moreno. Moreno, who had been 2-for-4 entering that at-bat, hit into a double play that erased the D-backs’ 10th-inning opportunity and left the game scoreless into extra frames. “Pretty frustrating game,” Lovullo said. “We were right in it. … We felt like we had a couple shots to win that game. It just didn’t happen. … We had a chance to win it in the ninth. We had a chance to win it in the 10th. We just couldn’t get that big knock and get us over the top.”
The contest flipped late in the 11th when Ryan Thompson, who had been part of the sequence of relievers keeping Milwaukee off the board, surrendered four runs. Two of those runs were driven by a Jackson Chourio swinging bunt that led to a throw home that got away for an error, and the Brewers tacked on additional runs in the frame to seal the win. Thompson took responsibility after the game for the mistake and the decision to risk a throw rather than try to limit the damage. “The not-so-funny part about that was we practiced that before the game and we actually worked on those exact things, throwing to the catcher,” Thompson said. “We practiced it today and I butchered it, so yeah, looking back on it, I need to eat that ball. I need to not risk the throw, knowing that we’re gonna come up in the bottom of the next inning and have a good chance to tie the game if that’s the only run I give up.”
A Brewers hitter rounds the bases while a Diamondbacks infielder watches in the game that stretched to 11 innings and ended in a 7-4 win for Milwaukee.
The game’s turning point on defense came earlier, in the third inning, when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. leaped at the wall to rob Garrett Mitchell of what would have been a three-run home run. The play prevented a potential Brewers rout and immediately swung momentum back to the Diamondbacks. In the bottom half of the third, Gabriel Moreno delivered an RBI single to put Arizona on the board and Nolan Arenado followed with a two-run double off left-hander Kyle Harrison to knot the score. Gurriel, speaking in Spanish after the game, called the catch “important for the game” but acknowledged that Arizona ultimately couldn’t take advantage to pull ahead.
Neither starter lasted long. Cabrera was lifted in the fourth after yielding three runs in the third, and Milwaukee’s left-hander Harrison did not work past the early innings either; neither starter went beyond 3.1 innings. With both teams turning to their bullpens, Arizona’s relief corps kept the Brewers under control for more than six innings before the late collapse. The Diamondbacks emptied their box of relievers — using everyone except Drey Jameson — in an all-in effort to win, and the group’s scoreless streak gave the offense multiple opportunities to take the lead.
Offensively, Arizona managed to scratch out baserunners but could not manufacture enough damage. After the third inning the D-backs recorded four additional hits, all singles, and never managed more than one hit in an inning the rest of the way. With runners in scoring position, Arizona went 3-for-12; Milwaukee finished the night 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position. The club’s inconsistency against right-handed pitching remained a theme: Arizona entered the matchup with a team-leading .271 batting average and a top-three .773 OPS versus lefties, but a major-league-worst .665 OPS against right-handed pitchers. The Brewers were quick to remove Harrison and deploy right-handed arms, limiting lefty matchups for Arizona after the early innings.
Arizona’s defense produced a handful of other notable plays as well. Perdomo recorded a tag on a runner between second and third and completed a double play to end the fourth inning, and Moreno made an athletic play on a bunt in the eighth, throwing sharply to turn what was intended as a safety squeeze into a 2-5 fielder’s choice. Yet the D-backs also committed three errors over the course of the night, and that combination of miscues and missed opportunities ultimately mattered. Ildemaro Vargas provided a late offensive highlight when his single in the 11th produced Arizona’s final run — his third hit of the game — but it came too late to alter the outcome.
Friday’s announced attendance at Chase Field was 31,820. The series continues Saturday when Merrill Kelly (5-8, 5.84 ERA) draws the start for Arizona against Milwaukee’s right-hander Brandon Woodruff (2-1, 2.59). First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. MST and the game will be followed by postgame fireworks; radio coverage will be on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app. With Eduardo Rodriguez lined up to start the series finale, Arizona will try to regroup and avoid another series loss to a strong Brewers club that entered with a 54-32 record and the second-best record in the National League. Arizona remains 14-33 this season against teams that are at or above .500.
Grant Anderson (2-3) was credited with the win after pitching the final two innings and allowing only an unearned run; Ryan Thompson (3-2) was charged with the loss.
Jackson Chourio’s slow roller in the 11th opened the scoring — the automatic runner Blake Perkins scored from third and Cooper Pratt also scored on Thompson’s off-target throw — and Brice Turang finished 3-for-6 with two RBIs while Garrett Mitchell hit a two-run homer earlier for Milwaukee.
Chad Patrick tossed 3 1/3 innings of relief, and Milwaukee’s bullpen (Patrick, Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill and Grant Anderson) combined for 8 1/3 innings while allowing just one earned run.