Three homers, strong start by Freddy Peralta help Brewers salvage series with Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Call it "Salvage Sunday."
Willy Adames homered on the two-year anniversary of his trade from Tampa Bay, and Rowdy Tellez and William Contreras also went deep as the Milwaukee Brewers avoided a sweep at the hands of the Rays with a 6-4 victory at Tropicana Field.
Freddy Peralta surrendered a three-run, game-tying homer in the fourth inning but the offense got the lead back for him and he made it stand up for the rest of his six-inning start for the Brewers, who closed an otherwise disappointing road trip with a 2-4 record.
Life came full-circle for Adames when he took left-hander Jalen Beeks out to right-center to lead off the second inning, his eighth of the season and first May 8.
Box score: Brewers 6, Rays 4
It gave Milwaukee its first lead of the series and Peralta – coming off his worst start of the season – a small cushion.
He made it stand into the fourth, when a leadoff double by Darin Ruf and Tellez homer to center one batter later off Cooper Criswell upped the advantage to 3-0.
It was Tellez's first homer since May 9.
The offense answered back in the fifth, however.
Owen Miller led off with a single – a knock that extended his on-base streak to 22 games and hitting streak to 13 – and Contreras followed with by homering off Criswell to almost the same spot Tellez did.
Christian Yelich, up next, doubled to right and four batters later Brian Anderson laced a single to center to drive him in and give Milwaukee its three-run lead right back.
And this time, it stood up.
Peralta gave the lead up in a three-batter span in the bottom of the fourth, with consecutive one-out walks coming back to bite him when Josh Lowe banged a three-run homer out to right to knot the score at 3-3.
Peralta (5-3) used an unexpected 5-3 double play to complete the sixth at 95 pitches. His four strikeouts tied a season low but he went six innings for the sixth time in nine turns while also registering his sixth quality start.
With the offense unable to tack on any additional runs, Joel Payamps kept it a 6-3 game with a scoreless seventh.
The eighth proved much more dicey as Peter Strzelecki hit Randy Arozarena in the hand with a pitch – the Brewers challenged and the ball appeared to hit the knob of the bat but the call was upheld – and Arozarena proceeded to steal second.
With two outs, Lowe singled him in to make it 6-4. Strzelecki then hit Luke Raley and was replaced by Devin Williams, who walked Manuel Margot to load the bases.
Isaac Paredes followed with a grounder down the third-base line that Miller bobbled initially, but he was able to recover and throw over to second for the out.
Williams locked his seventh save down in the ninth.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Three homers, strong start by Freddy Peralta salvage series with Rays
