Brewers hammer Philly, still lead NL Central by 11 games

September 7, 2021
|In Brewers
|By Zach Heilprin

Milwaukee took another step towards its third NL Central title Tuesday night with a 10-0 win against Philadelphia at American Family Field.

The Brewers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning with an Eduardo Escobar ground-rule double that scored a pair of runs and was followed by an RBI single from Christian Yelich. An Eric Lauer walk with the bases loaded and a two-run single from Kolton Wong added three more runs in the sixth, before Avisail Garcia added a two-run homer in the seventh. The Brewers would tack on two more runs in the eighth.

Yelich had three hits for just the third time this year and drove in two runs. Escobar had two hits and finished with three RBI, while Kolton Wong has a pair of hits and drove in a couple runs. Every player but Omar Narvaez had at least one hit and the team went 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

The offense was more than enough for Eric Lauer and the pitching staff. The lefty went seven innings, giving up just four hits and striking out five to even his record at 5-5 this season. Lauer’s best ERA for an season was 4.34 with San Diego in 2018. With Tuesday’s effort, his ERA dropped to 3.18.

Aaron Nola was tagged with the loss for Philadelphia, as he went five innings and gave up three runs on six hits.

With the win, Milwaukee pushed its record back to 30 games above .500 and maintained its 11-game lead on Cincinnati in the NL Central. The club did see its magic number to clinch the division drop to 12.

The Brewers will look to take 2 of 3 in the series when the two teams meet again Wednesday night.