Brad Miller had three hits and walked on four pitches with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th to drive in Manny Pina with the winning run as the Milwaukee Brewers rallied to hand the Minnesota Twins their fourth straight loss, 6-5, on Monday night at Miller Park in Milwaukee.
It was the ninth defeat in 11 games for the Twins, who lost a 5-1 lead and gave up the tying run in the bottom of the ninth as closer Fernando Rodney blew his fifth save of the season.
Corey Knebel (2-0) picked up the win for Milwaukee, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Pina also homered and Eric Thames and Jesus Aguilar each had two hits.
Zack Littell (0-2) took the loss. Robbie Grossman had two hits, including his first career grand slam, and Max Kepler, Willians Astudillo and starting pitcher Kyle Gibson each had two hits for Minnesota.
Littell hit Nate Orf to start the 10th, and Pina and Keon Broxton reached to load the bases. After pinch hitter Hernan Perez grounded into a force at home, Miller worked his game-winning walk.
After Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI forceout by Jesus Aguilar that drove in Miller, the Twins tied it in the third on Brian Dozier's RBI groundout, which scored Gibson.
Minnesota then took a 5-1 lead in the fifth on Grossman's two-out grand slam to left-center, driving in Dozier, Eddie Rosario and Gibson, who had all singled. It marked the third straight game that the Brewers gave up a grand slam, becoming just the fourth team in National League history and the seventh in MLB history to accomplish that feat.
Milwaukee answered with three runs in the bottom half. Pina led off the inning with his sixth homer of the season, a line drive to center to make it 5-2. Broxton, who robbed Joe Mauer of a home run by leaping and gloving his seventh-inning drive to left-center above the yellow line, followed with a double to left and went to third on an infield single by Jonathan Villar. Broxton scored on a single by Miller.
Two outs and a walk to Aguilar that loaded the bases later, rookie third baseman Astudillo mishandled a ground ball by Ryan Braun that allowed Villar to score and cut the Twins' lead to 5-4. Orf ended the inning with a line drive that Kepler caught at the fence in dead-center, just a couple feet shy of a grand slam.
Miller, Thames and Aguilar all had one-out singles off Rodney to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth. Travis Shaw then tied it, 5-5, with a sacrifice fly to center, but Rodney rebounded to get Braun on a comebacker to end the threat.
Brewers starter Brent Suter allowed five runs on nine hits in five innings, striking out five. Gibson allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits in five innings for the Twins.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Milwaukee | |
Kyle Gibson | Player | Brent Suter |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 5.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 5 |
8 | Hits | 9 |
5.40 | ERA | 9.00 |
Minnesota | Milwaukee | |
Kyle Gibson | Player | Brad Miller |
2 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 3 |
1.000 | Avg | .600 |