Seth Brown hit a game-altering three-run homer in the fourth inning and Brent Rooker followed with a solo shot as the Oakland Athletics ran their winning streak to five games by beating the host Milwaukee Brewers 8-6 on Sunday.
Esteury Ruiz doubled in two important insurance runs in the ninth as Oakland swept the three-game series, their first sweep of the season and their first five-game winning streak since 2021.
Trailing 8-3 with two outs and nobody on base in the ninth, the Brewers got a hit and three walks against Oakland closer Trevor May. Left-hander Sam Long came on to give up a bloop single for two runs to Abraham Toro, but he got Blake Perkins on a slow grounder for his second save of the season.
Left-hander JP Sears (1-3) picked up his first win since last Sept. 20. In five innings, he allowed two runs on six hits and a hit batter and struck out five.
Christian Yelich homered in the second inning for the Brewers and Owen Miller doubled in a run in the third, but the Athletics took the lead against Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta on two swings of the bat.
Ryan Noda singled to open the fourth and Peralta (5-6) hit the next batter. Brown then won an 11-pitch at-bat with Peralta, hammering a line-drive homer to right field, his fourth of the season. Rooker followed with his 13th, a 413-foot shot to left field.
In five innings, Peralta surrendered four runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter. He fanned five.
The Brewers trimmed their deficit to 4-3 in the sixth on Perkins’ RBI single off reliever Sam Moll, but Oakland got the run back in the seventh on Kevin Smith’s home run to left field, his fourth of the season, against Bryse Wilson.
Trailing 5-3 in the eighth, the Brewers had runners on first and second with one out against right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, but lefty Richard Lovelady came on to get a popout and Rowdy Tellez’s long flyout to center field.
After Ruiz’s two-run double in the ninth, Noda followed with his second hit, an RBI single.
Willy Adames, Yelich, Miller and Perkins each had two of Milwaukee’s 10 hits, and Luis Urias reached base three times on a walk and two hit-by-pitches. The Brewers were 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and lost their fourth straight game.
The Athletics had only six hits, four for extra bases.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell was away for his son’s high school graduation. Bench coach Pat Murphy led the team.
–Field Level Media
