Lucroy’s big night at the plate lifts Brewers over Phillies in series opener

Final: Brewers 7, Phillies 4

WP: Jimmy Nelson (5-8, 4.48 ERA) LP: Sean O'Sullivan (1-6, 5.76 ERA) SV: Francisco Rodriguez (16)

Philadelphia, PA - The Philadelphia Phillies (27-51) came up short against the Milwaukee Brewers (30-48) tonight in the series opener of a four-game set.

Brewers' catcher Jonathan Lucroy had a four-hit, two-RBI night, which significantly contributed to the team's 15th road win of the season.

The Phillies are the last remaining team to yet win 30 games this season. They are just 13 games removed from the All-Star Game festivities in Cincinnati, which is the unofficial end to the first-half of the season.


  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Brewers 1 0 1 0 1 3 0 1 0 7 16 1
Phillies 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 0

The Milwaukee Brewers got out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Two batters after Lucroysingled to right field, first baseman Adam Lind doubled for the 18th time of the season to score the game's first run.

It did not take long for Pete Mackanin's team to answer back and ultimately take the lead. The next half inning, center fielder Ben Revere and second baseman Cesar Hernandez doubled and singled respectively to lead-off the home half of the first. Revere scored on Hernandez's base-knock, his 41st run scored over 297 at-bats. Later in the inning, Hernandez came around to score himself because of a called balk by home plate umpire Mark Carlson.

Philadelphia added two more runs in the bottom of the second to put themselves on top, 4-1. With one out, shortstop Freddy Galvis walked and pitcher Sean O'Sullivan helped his own cause with his second career double to put two runners into scoring position. The next batter, Revere, grounded out to the opposing pitcher, Jimmy Nelson, to score Galvis. Hernandez followed with his second hit of the night to score O'Sullivan from second.

Milwaukee added one run in both the top of the third and fifth innings to draw one run shy of tying the game at four. These runs came from a sacrifice-fly RBI by Lind, and a RBI-double by right fielder Ryan Braun.

An inning later, in the top of the sixth, Craig Counsell's team added three runs onto O'Sullivan's final line, which gave them a 6-4 lead.

The Brewers had a stretch of six consecutive hits this frame, four of which were off of Sullivan and the remaining two off of right handed reliever Justin DeFratus. Pinch-hitter, and former Cub third baseman Aramis Ramirez, came up huge with a two-run double. Two batters later, Lucroy singled-home Ramirez for his 13th run-batted-in of the season.

Another insurance run was added by a Lucroy two innings later in the top of the eighth, to put Milwaukee on top for good, 7-4.


Starting Pitchers

  IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Jimmy Nelson 5 6 4 4 2 3 0 4.48
Sean O'Sullivan 5 12 6 6 1 3 0 5.76

  • Nelson: W; 77 pitches, 52 strikes; 9 groundouts, 0 flyouts; 22 faced batters
  • O'Sullivan: L; 86 pitches, 62 strikes; 4 groundouts, 4 flyouts; 28 faced batters

Out of the 'Pen

Brewers

  • Neal Cotts (6th): 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR, 3.98 ERA
  • Michael Blazek (6th): 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, o HR, 1.80 ERA
  • Jeremy Jeffress (7th): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.09 ERA
  • Will Smith (8th): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 1.24 ERA
  • Francisco Rodriguez (9th): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 1.55 ERA

Phillies

  • Justin DeFratus (6th, 7th, 8th): 2.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 5.40 ERA
  • Elvis Araujo (8th, 9th): 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.26 ERA

At the Plate

Brewers

  • Jonathan Lucroy: 4-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, .235 AVG
  • Ryan Braun: 3-5, 2B, RBI, .265 AVG
  • Adam Lind: 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, .292 AVG

Phillies

  • Cody Asche: 2-4, 2B, .249 AVG
  • Ben Revere: 1-4, 2B, R, RBI, .289 AVG
  • Cesar Hernandez: 2-4, R, RBI, .277 AVG


What's Next

Date/Time Milwaukee Brewers Philadelphia Phillies TV Radio
T, 6/30 RHP Taylor Jungmann LHP Cole Hamels CSN 94WIP, 1210 WPHT
7:05 (2-1, 2.74 ERA) (5-6, 3.26 ERA)
W, 7/1 RHP Kyle Lohse RHP Aaron Harang CSN 94WIP, 1210 WPHT
7:05 (4-9, 6.28 ERA) (4-10, 3.56 ERA)
R, 7/2 RHP Matt Garza RHP Chad Billingsley CSN 94WIP, 1210 WPHT
6:35 (4-10, 5.52 ERA) (0-2, 6.75 ERA)


Matt Rappa (@mattrappa) is managing editor of Philliedelphia.com.

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