Trent Grisham hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-5 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins on Wednesday afternoon.
The Brewers were trailing 5-3 entering the eighth when Ryan Braun opened the inning by reaching base on a throwing error by Jorge Polanco on a routine grounder to short and he then took third on a ground single to center by Hernan Perez. Grisham, playing in just his 11th major league game, then hit a 403-foot homer into the bleachers in right off Twins reliever Sergio Romo.
It was the second home run of Grisham's career. Eric Thames went 3-for-4 with a double, stolen base and two RBIs, and Keston Hiura had two hits, a walk and an RBI for Milwaukee, which snapped a two-game losing streak.
Junior Guerra (6-3) picked up the victory with two hitless innings of relief. Matt Albers, despite issuing consecutive walks to Polanco, Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario and throwing 10 consecutive balls during one stretch with two outs in the ninth, notched his fourth save by getting C.J. Cron to fly out to deep left-center to end the game.
Mitch Garver, Rosario and Sano homered, and Polanco had a two-run single for Minnesota, which maintained a half-game American League Central lead over the Cleveland Indians, who lost earlier Wednesday to the Boston Red Sox.
Romo (2-1) suffered the loss, allowing three runs (two earned) on two hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Garver led off the game with his 23rd home run of the season, tops among catchers in the majors, to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Rosario followed two outs later with his 26th homer of the season into the bullpen in left-center to make it 2-0. It was the 100th homer of Rosario's career.
The Brewers cut it to 2-1 in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Hiura, driving in Grisham, who had singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Sano made it 3-1 in the third with his 21st homer of the season, a 415-foot drive over the bullpen in left-center. Thames then cut it to 3-2 in the bottom half with an RBI single to drive in Hiura, who had singled.
Polanco then extended Minnesota's lead to 5-2 in the fourth with a two-run single. The Brewers cut it to 5-3 in the fifth on another RBI single by Thames, driving in Mike Moustakas, who had doubled.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Milwaukee | |
Kyle Gibson | Player | Gio Gonzalez |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 3.2 |
3 | Strikeouts | 5 |
8 | Hits | 5 |
5.40 | ERA | 12.27 |
Minnesota | Milwaukee | |
Ehire Adrianza | Player | Eric Thames |
1 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 0 |
3 | TB | 4 |
1.000 | Avg | .750 |