It was all hands on deck on Thursday night, Sept. 18 for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Every area came together to help sweep away the Los Angeles Angels, 5-2, at American Family Field – another terrific start by Quinn Priester, an amazing catch in center field by Blake Perkins, some timely offense sparked by Christian Yelich during the decisive three-run seventh inning and clutch bullpen work by Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe and Jared Koenig.
Priester struck out 10 over 5 ⅔ innings, including six straight to start the game and eight of the first nine batters, as Milwaukee won for the 19th straight time the young right-hander took the mound.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 5, Angels 2
Yelich, meanwhile, had a pair of hits while also reaching the 100-RBI mark in a season for the first time since 2018 and just the second time ever in his career. Caleb Durbin also drove in the first two runs of the game for Milwaukee with a pair of singles.
Coupled with a 1-0 loss by the Chicago Cubs to the Cincinnati Reds, the Brewers’ magic number to win the Central Division shrank from six games to four.
At 94-59, they’re also 35 games above .500 on the season – a franchise record.
Finally, Milwaukee breaks it open
Things weren’t looking great for Ashby (4-2) in the top of the seventh when Christian Moore lined a single down the first-base line and Sebastián Rivero followed with another hit to put two on with one out.
Ashby struck out Denzer Guzman to get to within an out of keeping it a 2-2 game when Chris Taylor came to the plate.
The bane of Brewers fans’ existence since the 2018 NLCS, Taylor sent a drive to center that looked like it was going to be trouble off the bat but Perkins cruised over and gloved the ball with a slide on the warning track to end the threat.
Jackson Chourio began the bottom of the frame with a double to center on a ball that was somewhat misread by Taylor and scored on a Brice Turang single, with Turang going to second on the throw home.
William Contreras walked, then Christian Yelich doubled in Turang for his 100th run batted in on the season and Andrew Vaughn’s sacrifice fly to left upped Milwaukee’s lead to 5-2.
Uribe tossed a scoreless eighth and Koenig finished up for his second save of the season.
The Brewers tie it in the sixth
A one-out Yelich single followed by a Vaughn walk put a pair on for Isaac Collins, who fouled out to first.
It was at that point starter Yusei Kikuchi was pulled for right-hander José Fermin, who was greeted by a run-scoring single by Caleb Durbin that knotted the score at 2-2.
Milwaukee grabs the lead, briefly
Kikuchi generated nine outs via the ground ball through the first four innings in keeping the Brewers at bay.
But Milwaukee finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth when Vaughn legged out a hustle double on a blooper to short right field, advanced to third on a Collins grounder and scored on Durbin’s infield single.
The Angels took their first lead of the series shortly thereafter, as Priester walked Jo Adell to start the fifth and then Luis Rengifo homered to right-center to make it a 2-1 game.
The homer was the first allowed by Priester since Aug. 16 at Cincinnati; he allowed two in a three-batter span in the sixth inning in what ended up being the Brewers’ 14th straight victory.
Ashby entered for Priester and got Rengifo looking to end the threat.
Priester allowed three hits, two runs and two walks with 10 strikeouts over 5 ⅔ innings and 93 pitches.
Quinn Priester has been untouchable
It doesn’t get much better than what Priester did the first time through the order against the Angels.
He struck out the first six batters in succession before Christian Moore broke up the streak by popping out to Turang at second base. Priester then finished off the inning with two more strikeouts to give him eight on 37 pitches.
A pair of groundouts to start the fourth was followed by, yes, a strikeout to up Priester’s total to nine on 52 pitches.
What time is the Brewers game tonight?
Time: 6:40 p.m.
What channel is the Brewers game on tonight?
TV channel: FanDuel Sports Wisconsin.
Brewers 2025 record
93-59 (best in the major leagues, five-game lead in the National League Central Division).
Brewers magic number
The Brewers magic number to clinch the NL Central is a combination of six wins and/or Cubs losses.
Brewers lineup
Angels lineup
Brewers schedule
Brewers vs. Cardinals, Sept. 19, 7:15 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Jacob Misiorowski (5-2, 4.35) vs. St. Louis RHP Sonny Gray (13-8, 4.43). TV – FanDuel Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers vs. Cardinals, Sept. 20, 6:15 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Chad Patrick (3-8, 3.64) vs. St. Louis RHP Miles Mikolas (8-10, 4.80). TV – FanDuel Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers vs. Cardinals, Sept. 21, 1:15 p.m.: Milwaukee TBA vs. St. Louis LHP Matthew Liberatore (7-12, 4.30). TV – FanDuel Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 5, Angels 2: True team effort caps a sweep for Milwaukee
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
