CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Willy Adames got the best of Cleveland Guardians ace Shane Bieber Friday night.
Adames went 4-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI to fuel Milwaukee’s 7-1 win at Progressive Field dropping Cleveland to 10-15 in series openers and 5-8 in home series openers this season.
“I expect to be able to give the team a better chance to win than I did tonight, so I wasn’t able to do that,” Bieber said. “It’s frustrating. Nobody’s more frustrated than myself.”
Here’s our Final 9 from what turned into a soggy night at the ballpark.
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1. Adames, who collected four hits Friday night, ended Bieber’s night with a three-run home run to left to give Milwaukee a 4-0 lead. Bieber allowed four earned runs in five innings with two walks and eight strikeouts to fall to 5-5 on the season. “He didn't command a couple pitches and really paid a pretty big price for it,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. Adames, who hadn’t homered in 54 consecutive plate appearances, slugged a solo homer in the top of the ninth for his third career multi-homer game and marked the sixth time he matched his career high with four hits in a game. “I mean, you hear what I say about our guys with as cold as they get, that’s the last thing you want to see if somebody get hot first day in,” Francona said. “We got to keep an eye on him now.”
2. The Brewers, who improved to an MLB-best 35-6 when scoring 4-or-more runs in a game, sent ten men to the plate in the sixth and five of them scored allowing the visitors to blow the game open.
3. A two-out RBI single to center by Adames that scored catcher William Contreras, who doubled with one out, gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. “One in the first inning is always frustrating no matter how it comes,” Bieber said. “We like to have a clean start but didn’t end up doing that. Was able to get on a roll… I ended up hanging up a slider to Willie to put a great swing on it. So very frustrating.”
4. Brewers left-hander Wade Miley picked up his fifth win of the season to improve to 5-2 with six shutout innings of work against the Guardians. Miley threw just 67 pitches – 49 for strikes while allowing just three hits and striking out three. “Unfortunately we’ve seen that before,” Francona said. “He works quick. Can sink it, cut it, change speeds. He’s a really good veteran pitcher.”
5. Jose Ramirez slugged a solo home run to center to lead off the bottom of the seventh to end the shutout bit. The 411-foot shot was the 1,238th career hit for Ramirez in his career to pass Dale Mitchell for 15th place on the Guardians’ all-time hit list. Since June 6, Ramirez has homered six times and driven in 16 runs. He’s also driven in a run in 11 of his last 15 games.
6. The lone threats Cleveland mounted against Miley came with Josh Naylor’s leadoff double in the second and catcher Cam Gallager’s one-out double in the third.
7. Naylor has now hit safely in 17 of his last 21 games.
8. Tyler Freeman, who started for Andres Gimenez at second base, made a leaping catch in the top of the fifth inning of a liner off the bat of Milwaukee second baseman Luis Urias. It was one of very few highlights for the Guardians in their 39th loss of the season.
9. A light steady rain began falling during the Brewers’ sixth inning rally and continued for the remaining of the game in front of 30,056 for the weekend opener.