Brewers: Jimmy Nelson slams door on Mets in 4-1 win
By Phil Watson
The 2015 season has seen a Jekyll and Hyde performance by Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Jimmy Nelson. Some days have brought good Jimmy and other nights have seen bad Jimmy.
On Wednesday night at Miller Park, it was an absolutely dominant Nelson who took the mound, limiting the visiting New York Mets to one run on just two hits over eight innings as the Brewers took their second in a row since returning home, 4-1.
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Nelson (4-8) needed just 102 pitches to get through eight innings, matching the longest outing of his career, and walked just one while striking out five.
The lone blemish was a solo homer by Curtis Granderson—his 11th of the season—leading off the fourth inning.
But Milwaukee (27-46) was already up in the game thanks to two quick runs in the bottom of the first off Mets starter Bartolo Colon (9-6).
Gerardo Parra led off with a double and after Jonathan Lucroy singled, the Crew had runners at the corners with no one out.
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Ryan Braun lined a single to center to score Parra and Adam Lind followed with an opposite-field double that plated Lucroy.
After New York (36-37) got on the board in the fourth, the Brewers made it a two-run advantage again in the bottom of the first, stringing together three consecutive two-out hits by Braun, Lind and Carlos Gomez to get a run home.
Scooter Gennett closed the scoring with his third homer of the season with one out in the bottom of the sixth.
Francisco Rodriguez struck out one and worked around a hit in the ninth to earn his 15th save.
But the night belonged to Nelson. The big right-hander has struggled with control and command off and on all season, but was spot-on Wednesday, with 70 of his 102 pitches thrown for strikes.
“That’s what gets you so excited about him,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell told MLB.com.
Nelson had given up 10 runs and 21 hits in 10 innings over his last two starts.
“I know I have the ability to go out there and perform like that, or close to that, every time I go out there,” Nelson said. “It’s not so much the ups and downs, the really highs and really lows. It’s just trying to stay on a level plane.”
The team even got a laugh at the expense of veteran third baseman Aramis Ramirez, who sort of lost track of the situation in the eighth inning.
The Brewers collected 10 hits against Colon in six innings, with Lind going 2-for-3 and Lucroy and Braun each putting up 2-for-4 nights.
Nelson lowered his ERA to 4.34 with Wednesday’s gem.
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So now the Brewers will—once again—seek to close out that elusive first series sweep of the season when they take on the Mets in the series finale at 1:10 p.m. Central.
Rookie Taylor Jungmann (2-1, 3.50) takes the hill for the Brewers against right-hander Jacob deGrom (7-5, 2.34).
Jungmann, who will be making his fourth big-league start, will be facing the Mets for the first time. In his last start, Jungmann allowed four runs on eight hits in six innings while getting a win at Colorado on Friday, walking one and fanning four.
deGrom is 2-1 in three career starts against Milwaukee, with a 2.00 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 18 innings. That includes allowing a run on five hits in six innings, striking out six, in a 14-1 win at Citi Field on May 16.
In his last start, deGrom allowed two runs on four hits in 7.1 innings, but took the loss in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.
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