We’ve seen it before. We’ll probably see it again at some point.
But the way the Milwaukee Brewers executed three consecutive seventh inning bunts that were the difference in their 2-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday afternoon, April 16 at American Family Field had something of a throwback feel to it.
“I think it’s coming back,” manager Pat Murphy said of his team’s station-to-station success in a game that long ago placed emphasis on doing damage with the long ball. Being able to lay down those three in a row also clinched the 200th victory for Murphy as Milwaukee’s skipper.
“It’s a very difficult thing for a pitcher to do his job the way we do it today,” Murphy continued. “There’s a lot of really big men pitching and then to have to run, break down, secure the baseball, get your eyes on the target and make a good throw with that type of adrenaline and that type of movement on the guy running to first, I think it’s legit.
“We’ve done it for the last couple of years. You’ve seen it. Not always successful, but the threat of the bunt becomes a defensive positioning thing, too.”
Milwaukee’s offense had been mostly spinning its wheels to that point, having forged a 1-1 tie in the fourth after a Brice Turang double, William Contreras single and Luis Rengifo sacrifice fly.
Garrett Mitchell, facing Tommy Nance, came off the bench to draw a leadoff walk in the seventh and advanced to second when Greg Jones – making his first start after being selected from Class AAA Nashville on April 14 – got the bunt train moving by deadening one just enough out in front of home plate.
“It’s pretty tough. Guys are throwing 95, 96, 97 and the ball’s moving all over the place – you’ve just got to stick your nose in there behind the barrel and get it down. Do the job,” said Jones, who’d singled solidly to center in his previous at-bat.
“I’m just trying to get the ball on the ground so we can move the runner. I’m not even worried about first base.”
David Hamilton then greeted Joe Mantiply with a bunt single that moved Mitchell to third base to pass the baton to Joey Ortiz, who was able to get his bat on a changeup that was down and out of the strike zone.
It was perfectly placed, with Mantiply hustling in and catcher Tyler Heineman rushing out, leaving home plate completely uncovered as Mitchell crossed without issue.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 2, Blue Jays 1
Fundamentals at their finest.
“Get the job done. That’s all that I was thinking,” Ortiz said. “Just get the job done and find a way to get this run in. That’s all that mattered.”
It marked the second straight game Milwaukee put together a game-winning rally without so much as an extra-base hit; it was four well-placed singles in the eighth that pushed two runs across in a 2-1 victory on Wednesday.
“It’s just about getting the job done,” said Ortiz. “Doing the little things right. Guys get on, you’ve got to get them over and get them in. However we do it is the way we do it, and today was the bunt. Other days it might be hitting.
“It doesn’t really matter. We can do it any way.”
An impressive start for Brandon Sproat
The day after Chad Patrick became the first Brewers pitcher in 2026 to pitch into the seventh inning, fellow right-hander Brandon Sproat matched him with the exact same 6 ⅔ innings.
And while Patrick was economical, throwing 81 pitches, Sproat was even more so needing only 75 en route to his deepest effort in the major leagues to this point.
It was easily his best effort in four appearances this season, with the first two being especially rough before Sproat somewhat got back on track against the Washington Nationals his previous time out.
“Just taking it one pitch at a time, to be honest with you,” said Sproat. “Not worrying about results. Playing freely, like Murph talked about with us. That was my biggest mindset today.”
The Blue Jays used a double, single and Heineman sacrifice bunt to take a 1-0 lead against Sproat in the third but he allowed only two more hits and a walk the rest of the way.
“I think the biggest thing was keep the rhythm up. Just get the ball and go. Don’t think about anything else. Just attack, attack, attack, and I think we did a really good job of that today.”
Sproat induced a flyout and a groundout to begin the seventh before Murphy made his trek out to the mound to replace him with Aaron Ashby.
“Pretty bad. Pretty bad,” Sproat said when asked how badly he wanted to remain in the game. “I guess it’s not my time to fight Murph about that now. But I definitely wanted to finish that seventh.
“With the bullpen behind me, I trust his decision.”
Offered Murphy: “He hadn’t been up seven times. And that’s really tough on a young kid – the adrenaline, 12 o’clock game. It isn’t about number of pitches. The inning before he gave up two hard contacts and we told him, ‘You’re going to get the first two hitters.’ We weren’t going to bring him back out with the long layoff.”
With Milwaukee in need of all it can get from its rotation at this point, Sproat took a big step forward.
“Just that I’m capable,” he said when asked what he took away from his outing. “Capable of going out there and making good pitches, getting a ground ball when needed. Giving it my all. That was the big word today. He told me, ‘You’re more than capable,’ and hearing that from him is definitely a boost in confidence.”
Nice recovery by Trevor Megill
If anybody needed a bounceback inning out of Milwaukee’s bullpen, it was Trevor Megill.
Pitching for the second time in the series and first time since blowing a save and being booed by the home crowd, Megill threw his first 1-2-3 inning of the season in the eighth and looked good doing it as he finished with consecutive strikeouts of Davis Schneider and Daulton Varsho.
This time, he exited the mound to cheers in the wake of a bit of a dustup with the Toronto dugout.
“Very much appreciated from the Milwaukee crowd,” Megill said. “It’s been a tough last two and that was great to see. We got fired up a little bit from what happened in the middle of the inning and just kind of handled business. Went walking off and felt that energy kind of pulling for me from the crowd, so once again, thank you guys.”
Megill was asked what led to the jawing, which saw Blue Jays manager John Schneider and a few players walk out of the dugout in response.
“I was rubbing balls on my legs and somebody – I think it was Schneider was complaining about it,” Megill said. “I looked at them and said, ‘I promise I have nothing on there,’ and immediately got ‘{Expletive] yous’ from the bench.'”
Drama aside, it was a promising effort from the Brewers’ now-sometimes closer (Angel Zerpa converted his second save to close this one out).
“Good for me and even better for the team, right?” Megill said. “There were a few adjustments there. Just making better pitches and being in a different count instead of 2-0, 2-1 on everybody.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers bunt their way to victory over the Blue Jays
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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