Brewers 5, Diamondbacks 1: Freddy Peralta nearly throws a no-hitter

The Diamondbacks lost their 15th straight road game, setting a new franchises record while falling to 20-39 on the season. It’s been 40 days and 40 nights since they won a game on the road.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ starter Freddy Peralta took a no hitter into the 8th before Nick Ahmed finally broke it up with a base hit, which was the D-backs only hit of the night. Matt Peacock had a wild night, walking 4 batters and surrendering 4 runs, 3 earned in 4 ²⁄₃ IP. The defense was sloppy once again making some mental and physical miscues in the 3rd inning that pushed Torey to his limits and he finally exploded on the team in dugout.

Here is your inning by inning recap with post game comments to follow:

T-1 Rojas worked his at bat from an 0-2 count to a walk, but Kelly flew out to deep center and Escobar and Walker both struck out to leave him stranded. 19 pitches for Peralta. Small victories.

B-1. Matt Peacock got 3 groundouts in the first inning. Unfortunately they were sandwiched around a solo homerun by Daniel Vogelbach. With Peacock seemingly struggling with his fingers or hands, he left a pitch and Vogelbach who drilled it over the left center field wall for 1-0 Brewers lead

T-2 Peralta struck out, Smith lined out to Bradley in center and Reddick lined out to right

B-2 Peacock struggling with command and location, perhaps due to a worsening fingernail situation walked the leadoff batter Omar Narvaez in the 2^nd. (It turned out to be a broken nail, which he just needed to A swinging bunt by Travis Shaw and 4 pitch walk to Willy Adames gave the Brewers Bases loaded with nobody out. Bradley hit a slow ground ball to short and the Dbacks were only able to get the force at 2^nd while Narvaez scored to make it 2-0. Peacock got out of it with no further damage however.

T-3 Peralta registered his 4^th and 5^th strikeouts and the D-backs went 3 up 3 down, still looking for their first hit.

B-3 Vogelbach drew the 2^nd leadoff walk against Peacock and 3^rd of the game overall, but a sharp ground ball to Walker at first resulted in a 3-6-3 double play. A two out single by Garcia was followed by a shot to right center field gap by Narvaez that Pavin Smith couldn’t cut off and then couldn’t pick up. It was scored a double with an error on Smith, and then a second error on Rojas who threw wide of third base allowing Narvaez to score. Peacock had failed to back up on the play, and the ball rolled into the dugout. Eduardo Escobar stayed flat face down on the ground as Narvaez ran home to make it 4-0 Brewers. Between innings Torey was seen on camera with his team surrounding him letting them have it. He was gesturing angrily and pointing and yelling. I’ve never seen him do anything like that in public. Will definitely be a hot button question after the game.

T-4 Two more K’s and another hitless inning for Peralta

B-4 Peacock managed to retire the bottom of the order 1-2-3.

T-5 Josh Reddick drew a 2 out walk for the D-backs 2^nd baserunner of the game, but Ahmed struck out to end the inning, still hitless for Arizona.

B-5. A nice diving stop by Walker and a flip to Peacock retires Urias. Peacock gave up a two out single and a walk, and was pulled from the game. Mantiply came in to get a ground out to end the inning. Still 4-0 Brewers

T-6 The Dbacks remain hitless and Peralta has 9 k’s

B-6 Humberto Castellanos made his D-backs debut and retired the side in order including a strikeout

T-7. Luis Urias made a phenomenal diving catch on a line drive up the middle from Christian Walker to keep the no hitter alive. It was a 6 pitch inning also keeping Peralta’s chances of staying in the game alive and surely torturing Craig Counsel

B-7 Castellanos threw another 1-2-3 inning, striking out two more.

T-8 With one out in the 8^th Josh Reddick walked and Nick Ahmed came back from an 0-2 count to finally dunk a base hit into left center to break up the no hitter. Craig Counsel pulled Peralta with a career high 109 pitches. Brad Boxberger came in to relieve and Asdrubal Cabrera, fresh off the IL stepped up to pinch hit. He worked the count full fouling off some tough pitches but flew out to deep right, just missing a homerun. Reddick scored on the sac fly for the D-backs lone run. Rojas struck out to end the inning, but not before Joe West missed a call on a pitch outside that would have been ball 4. Just retire already.

B-8 Kevin Ginkel worked the 8^th and got two quick outs, but Narvaez had a 12 pitch at bat fouling off pitch after pitch before taking a center cut fastball over the centerfield wall , and the Brewers 5^th run of the game. That spoiled a run of 9 straight hitters retired by the D-backs pen.

T-9: The D-backs go down meekly in the 9th , 3 up 3 down again. Ballgame.

Post Game Reactions:

Nick Ahmed: Nick was asked if he thought the skid the team is on could result in anyone getting fired. He said that’s not a question to ask him and you know who you need to ask that to. He loves Torey and the coaches and they just need to play better.

Ahmed audio [or link]

Torey Lovullo: I had enough. That’s basically what I told the group.....what I told them was that I have extremely high expectations of this group and we are good baseball team. It’s time to go out and play our type of baseball. At the end of the night I can sit down and accept a win or a loss if we do things our way. We are not meeting our standards. I got the whole group together. I didn’t care. It was that time I needed to address that situation and let them know that I feel we can do better.. It bubbled over when a ball rolled into the dugout and I just said that’s enough.

Lovullo audio [or link]

Fangraphs Box Score

It seems almost gratuitous , but Nick Ahmed was the only one with a positive WPA of .008 for the lone hit of the game

Matt Peacock had a deserved negative WPA of -.212 for this game

Roll Call: Just 10 commenters with 101 comments. If the team won’t show up at all to play, I can’t blame anyone else.

Our good buddy Smurf-1000 with the only Red comment of the night. Joe West missed a couple of calls, but he wasn’t the actual problem tonight. In any case it’s still a good way to describe West because he’s bad at his job nowadays.

It doesn’t get any easier when they face the Brewers Ace Brandon Woodruff tomorrow, 1:10 P.M. Arizona Time. Merrill Kelly gets the ball for the D-backs