Milwaukee Brewers: Carlos Gomez returns from beaning with a bang
By Phil Watson
While he probably wouldn’t advocate being hit in the head more often, Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez showed no ill effects of his beaning on Sunday, leading off the game with a home run and later delivering the go-ahead single in the seventh inning as the Brewers took a 3-2 decision from the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park Monday night.
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But it was the Milwaukee bullpen that picked up the win and then preserved it.
With right-hander Mike Fiers tiring in the sixth, right-hander Jeremy Jeffress came on with runners at second and third and two outs and proceeded to blow away Rajai Davis on four fastballs that clocked in at 96, 96, 97 and 98 during a heavy rain.
Yeah, good luck seeing those, Rajai.
“I’m telling you, it was crazy,” Jeffress told MLB.com. “I thought they were going to stop [the game], to be honest with you. They kept it going.”
In the top of the seventh, Elian Herrera started the inning innocently enough with an infield single. Two outs later, with Luis Sardinas at first after a fielder’s choice, Martin Maldonado got his first hit in more than a week—since his dramatic walk-off winner on Mother’s Day—to keep the inning alive.
Gomez followed with a ground-ball single up the middle off Tigers’ left-hander Kyle Lobstein (3-4) that gave Milwaukee (14-25) a 3-2 lead.
Jeffress (1-0) worked around Jose Iglesias’ two-out single and stolen base in the bottom of the inning before Jonathan Broxton came on to work the eighth for the Brewers.
Things did not start well—Ian Kinsler singled and Miguel Cabrera worked a walk to put runners at first and second with no one out.
But Broxton got Victor Martinez to bounce into a controversial 4-6-3 double play that was upheld on video review after the Tigers challenged the play, claiming Martinez had beaten the relay at first.
It was a huge call, particularly after Broxton struck out J.D. Martinez to strand the tying run at third.
Francisco Rodriguez worked the ninth, getting pinch-hitter Yoenis Cespedes to ground into a game-ending double play after allowing a one-out single. It was Rodriguez’s eighth save in as many chances.
Rodriguez was quick to credit the guys who worked in front of him.
“JJ and ‘Brox’ did a tremendous job,” Rodriguez said. “They’re the reason why we won. They did the hard work, pretty much.”
Fiers grinded his way through 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts and throwing 104 pitches.
Gomez, who was hit in the helmet with a 97-mph fastball in Sunday’s loss to the New York Mets, turned around the third pitch of the game from Lobstein for a home run that just tucked inside the foul pole down the left-field line to give Milwaukee a quick lead in its first series at Detroit—its longtime rival in the American League East in the 1970s through the early 1990s—since 2009.
“It’s not about me, it’s about we lost two games in a row and came here in Detroit to face a good team,” Gomez told MLB.com. “To get a ‘W’ is big.”
The Tigers (23-16) answered with an RBI groundout from Kinsler in the bottom of the first after Anthony Gose led off the game with a single, stole second and moved up to third on a wild pitch by Brewers starter Mike Fiers.
James McCann put Detroit up 2-1 in the bottom of the second on a bunt single that scored Davis from third.
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The Brewers drew even on Aramis Ramirez’s fourth home run of the season leading off the top of the fourth. Ramirez was in the lineup as the designated hitter, with Herrera starting at third base.
Gomez finished the day 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI and his fourth home run.
Milwaukee sends right-hander Jimmy Nelson (1-4, 4.22 ERA) to the mound Tuesday at 6:08 p.m. Central against right-hander Anibal Sanchez (3-4, 4.76).
It will be Nelson’s first career appearance against the Tigers and his first career appearance in an American League park. His previous two interleague starts have come at Miller Park.
Sanchez is 2-1 in seven starts against Milwaukee in his career, with a 5.30 ERA in 37.1 innings. But his last appearance against the Brewers was July 3, 2012, while he was a member of the Miami Marlins.
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