Maldonado delivers for Brewers, Mom
By Phil Watson
With his mother visiting from Puerto Rico, Martin Maldonado had himself one heckuva Mother’s Day at Miller Park.
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Not only does the Milwaukee Brewers catcher get to enjoy some home cooking, but he also homered and later stroked a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th inning as the Crew topped the Chicago Cubs, 3-2.
The second straight win for Milwaukee (11-21) gave the Brewers their second straight weekend series win over Chicago (15-15).
It was a day of seasonal firsts for the Brewers—who got their first back-to-back homers when Maldonado and Elian Herrera connected off Cubs left-hander Zac Rosscup in the seventh inning and later got their first walk-off victory since last Sept. 12 when Maldonado lofted a fly ball over the head of Cubs right fielder Jorge Soler with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 11th.
The Brewers are 2-0-1 in their last three series after dropping their first seven to start the season.
Ryan Braun started the winning rally in the 11th with a double off right-hander Jason Motte (1-1), who had just entered the game. After Adam Lind was intentionally walked, Khris Davis flew out to center with Braun advancing to third.
Chicago elected to intentionally walk Jean Segura to load the bases and face Maldonado, who after a 3-for-5 Sunday is still hitting just .197.
The Cubs then brought left-fielder Chris Coghlan onto the infield, deploying five on the infield and giving Maldonado no chance of pulling the flame-throwing Motte.
He didn’t either, but he got a fastball the other way over the head of Soler to end it with his mother Jeannette in the stands.
“To come through like that with a homer and then the walk-off win is pretty special for my mom,” Maldonado told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I saw her when I hit the homer. I looked over and she was jumping around. We’re going to have a great dinner tonight.”
Right-handers Matt Garza of Milwaukee and Kyle Hendricks of Chicago locked up in a pitcher’s duel in the early going, with the Cubs getting the first score in the game in the top of the sixth on what was Garza’s only real mistake of the day—a two-seam fastball that Miguel Montero turned around for an opposite-field homer to left-center.
Montero’s fourth long ball of the season put Chicago up 1-0.
Hendricks didn’t allow a run through 5.1 innings, but was yanked after throwing 85 pitches.
Rosscup came on to start the seventh and Maldonado lined a fastball into the left-field seats to tie the game at 1-1. Three pitches later, Herrera hit the same pitch in almost the same spot over the left-center field wall to put Milwaukee up 2-1.
It was the second home runs of the season for both players.
Garza left after seven standout innings, allowing just the one run on three hits while striking out nine and walking three, lowering his ERA to 4.04.
But the bullpen couldn’t hold on.
Right-hander Jonathan Broxton came on in the eighth and gave up a one-out single to Dexter Fowler before fanning Khris Bryant. But with lefty-swinging Anthony Rizzo due up, manager Craig Counsell went with left-hander Will Smith to close the inning.
Rizzo lined a slider to right field to score Fowler and tie the game, Smith’s first blown save of the season.
Francisco Rodriguez struck out two in a perfect ninth, Jeremy Jeffress worked around a hit with a strikeout in the 10th and Michael Blazek (3-0) got the win after throwing a 1-2-3 11th and striking out a pair.
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Braun was 2-for-5 on the day for the Brewers.
After taking two of three from the Cubs, the Brewers will turn their attention to Chicago’s other team, the White Sox, beginning Monday at 6:20 p.m. at Miller Park.
Wily Peralta (1-4, 3.92 ERA) gets the ball for Milwaukee, coming off his first win of the season in his last start, will face the White Sox for the first time in his career.
Chicago will counter with a pitcher with plenty of experience facing the Brewers, right-hander Jeff Samardzija (2-2, 4.38 ERA). The former Cub is 2-6 lifetime with a 4.55 ERA in 22 appearances, eight of them starts, against Milwaukee, covering 63.1 innings.
That will be the first of three against the Pale Hose at Miller Park before the Brewers take Thursday off and head to New York for a weekend set against the Mets.