MILWAUKEE (AP) — Freddy Peralta pitched six effective innings and William Contreras hit a tiebreaking homer that sent the Milwaukee Brewers past the Cleveland Guardians 2-1 on Saturday night for their fourth straight victory.
Gary Sánchez had an early RBI double and Milwaukee maintained its 10-game lead in the NL Central, the largest of any division leader.
Cleveland’s advantage in the AL Central was sliced to two games over surging Minnesota, which beat Texas 5-2.
Josh Naylor launched his 27th homer for the Guardians, held to four runs in two losses at Milwaukee to begin their three-game interleague series this weekend.
Peralta (8-7) allowed four hits and two walks while striking out three. The right-hander had just one win in his previous seven starts and had permitted four or more runs in three of his past four outings.
“I feel like Freddy’s been throwing the ball like that, but he hasn’t had the best of luck,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I thought he was really, really good tonight.”
Naylor’s homer tied it 1-all with two outs in the fourth. In the bottom half, Contreras sent a 1-2 changeup from Tanner Bibee to left field for his 17th homer of the season — and sixth in August.
“I just feel really good at the plate right now,” Contreras said. “I’m feeling really comfortable and I’m not trying to do too much, just trying to do what I can to help the team.”
It was the only earned run allowed by Bibee (10-5), who held the Brewers to three hits and a walk while striking out seven over five innings.
“They got his pitch count up and made him work,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “A lot of foul balls. The two mistakes he made tonight were the double and the homer. I thought he was really good, but they got his pitch count up early.”
Milwaukee’s bullpen made the narrow lead hold up. Joel Payamps worked a scoreless seventh, Jared Koenig struck out the side in the eighth and Devin Williams needed only 10 pitches to earn his fourth save in four chances this season since coming off the injured list last month.
Brice Turang walked and scored on Sánchez’s double in the first after an errant pickoff attempt by Bibee.
“A lot of these guys run. The whole goal is to try to keep them close,” Bibee said. “I just made a bad throw.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Brewers: OF Blake Perkins (calf) participated in running drills on the field before the game and could return to the team by next weekend. … RHP Trevor Megill (back strain) and RHP Enoli Paredes (forearm strain) will make rehab appearances Sunday with Class A Wisconsin.
UP NEXT
Brewers RHP Colin Rea (10-4, 3.72 ERA) faces RHP Ben Lively (10-7, 3.71) in the series finale Sunday.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
