Brewers grind past Diamondbacks after costly misfires

Brewers grind – In Phoenix on July 3, the Milwaukee Brewers didn’t just escape the Arizona Diamondbacks—they survived their own mistakes, squandered chances, and a shaky start from Kyle Harrison before a two-foot Jackson Chourio jam-job in the 11th flipped the game to a 7-4,

PHOENIX — By the time Pat Murphy got the question, the damage was already done and undone again. From his office at Chase Field on July 3 after more than 3½ hours of profoundly unkempt baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers manager was still trying to pin down what kind of game it had been.

“I’m not sure we did that tonight,” Murphy said. “I’m not sure which team lost it and which team won it.”

The scoreboard would say his team won it: the Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-4 in 11 innings. But Murphy didn’t sound relieved so much as unsettled—by the way it went wrong first.

Murphy watched a starter fail to make it out of the third in an outing he labeled “pathetic.” He saw a botched squeeze bunt. He saw a double play that nearly required inventiveness to land. And he counted 13 straight hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position—one stretch of pressure that made the win feel more like survival than celebration.

“You can’t make that [expletive] up,” Murphy said.

Yet in a night packed with odd turns and spoiled rallies. a tiny. unglamorous moment in the 11th finally gave the Brewers the margin they hadn’t earned anywhere else. With Milwaukee having been hitless in its last 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Jackson Chourio produced a two-foot jam-job straight into the ground in the top of the 11th. It still became a turning point—because pitcher Ryan Thompson uncorked a wild throw home.

That error turned into two runs. Brice Turang followed with a two-run single to make it a 7-3 lead, giving the Brewers a cushion on a night when the only comfort that had come earlier sat in ailing manager Pat Murphy’s spot on the dugout.

The Brewers had to earn every out after Kyle Harrison didn’t make it out of the third. Chad Patrick relieved Harrison in the third and worked through the mess before handing it to Aaron Ashby. Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill. That still wasn’t enough to quiet Arizona. and the offense never delivered the relief it needed—so Grant Anderson was sent in for the 10th.

Anderson did the job. He recorded the final six outs to end the grueling, marathon affair.

“His poise was amazing,” Murphy said of Anderson. “Megill, Uribe, Ashby, on top of Patrick. 8⅓ innings of relief, it was pretty impeccable.”

Murphy praised the whole bullpen, but Anderson’s moment came right after the game could have shifted again. After the Brewers offense failed to score the inherited runner in the top half against former Brewers spring training pitcher Taylor Clarke. Anderson induced a double play following a Corbin Carroll intentional walk. He then sent the game to the 11th with a pop fly.

In the 10th, Anderson needed only five pitches, then worked around an Ildemaro Vargas RBI single to plate the automatic runner in the 11th. From there, the Brewers held on.

The win carried a familiar sting: Milwaukee kept finding runners, then kept wasting the chance. When the Brewers were 3 for 15 with runners on base and put the first two on in the eighth against left-hander Brandyn Garcia. it looked like the night might turn. Instead, they went 3 for 18 by the end of the frame.

Andrew Vaughn reached on a fielder’s choice that moved the go-ahead run to third. Then. rather than allow Cooper Pratt to swing away. the Brewers called for a second squeeze bunt with their rookie shortstop in three days. Pratt didn’t get it out of the dirt, and Jake Bauers got caught between third and home.

“You can’t fault Bauers there,” Murphy said.

Murphy had dialed up a safety squeeze for Pratt on July 1. That play resulted in an out at home, although the Brewers “vehemently disputed the result of a replay review on the play.”

On July 3, the gamble didn’t pay.

Patrick’s relief helped keep the game from slipping fully away. He entered Harrison’s mess in the third and escaped it by getting Vargas to pop out and stranding the go-ahead run on base. By the time he departed, it was the seventh inning and the score was still tied.

Patrick finished 3 1/3 innings of critical relief after Harrison recorded only eight outs, bridging the game to Ashby in the seventh. Patrick struck out two, walked none, and allowed only one hit. He also got help from Jackson Chourio in left, who got payback on Lourdes Gurriel Jr. for his home run robbery earlier with a stellar leaping catch at the wall.

“I hung one there and definitely thought he got all of it,” said Patrick. “Chourio made a great play on it and luckily the fans didn’t interfere.”

Patrick also seemed to sense the matchup. He said he picked up on the intent of the Diamondbacks hitters from his first at-bat of the outing against Vargas. explaining that Vargas—normally patient—swung at the first pitch. Patrick said that told him everything he needed after Arizona had been “pesky” with its patience against Harrison.

That patience showed up again in ways that made the Brewers’ attempts feel harder to finish. In the fourth. when Pratt singled. stole second. and David Hamilton walked to open the inning. it looked like Milwaukee might finally reclaim control. Then Christian Yelich lightly tapped a grounder to the mound. and Arizona brought in Jonathan Loaisiga to face Chourio with two in scoring position.

Chourio and Hamilton answered with a creative way to turn a chance into a double play—one that. in Murphy’s words. was almost unbelievable. Left fielder Chourio ripped a grounder to shortstop. and instead of trying to beat Pratt home with a throw. the shortstop tagged out the bypassing Hamilton to start a twin killing.

“I’ve never seen it in my life,” Murphy said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Kyle Harrison’s third inning was the first real fracture. The Diamondbacks grinded out at-bats against him until they were able to chase him from the game. Of the five batters to reach base against Harrison in the inning. four reached with two strikes. including Nolan Arenado. who tied the game at 3-3 with a two-out double to left on the 38th pitch of the inning.

That was the end for Harrison. With two outs and one on, Corbin Carroll smashed a single on a slurve past a diving Bauers. Gabriel Moreno followed with a single to bring home a run, and Gurriel Jr. walked.

“It sucks that I went out there and did the job I did today,” Harrison said. “That’s pathetic. I need to be better. I need to go deeper in games and I’m going to work my butt off to do that.”

Harrison said the struggles came largely from not being able to execute his breaking ball as the Diamondbacks either spoiled fastballs at 96 and 97 mph or laid off entirely.

“They had a great approach against me,” he said. “Not chasing anything down. Just a really frustrating day but the bullpen did a great job and we got the win, so that’s all that matters.”

And still, the night didn’t belong to the mistakes alone. There was warmth in the power—especially from Garrett Mitchell.

In Phoenix, where the temperature hit face-melting 106 degrees before the game, Mitchell stayed red hot. Coming off a homestand in which he went 8 for 16 with two home runs and five total extra-base hits, Mitchell hit one of the loudest long balls of the year in the second off starter Jose Cabrera.

After Bauers’ single to center, Mitchell turned on a center-cut, first-pitch cutter and turned it around at 111.8 mph. The ball traveled 435 feet to center, clearing the towering 25-foot fence.

“Just looking for something over the heart of the plate up in the zone and didn’t miss it,” Mitchell said.

In his next at-bat, Mitchell nearly sent the pitch the same way again—he hit it over the fence for what would have been a three-run homer, but Gurriel Jr. went well above the yellow line at the top of the fence to bring it back.

“I almost clapped,” Murphy said.

The defensive stop mattered. Murphy had been watching the Brewers lead by six and possibly chase Cabrera when Arizona stayed in the fight—and wound up becoming the team that chased the starter.

Mitchell also made an impact with his glove. In the ninth, off Max Kepler’s bat, Mitchell chased a long fly ball down to lead off the inning with Megill pitching. Mitchell said he felt like this kind of crashing catch into the fence was finally back.

“As time has gone on. I felt like there was a flip of a switch going back to playing at Wrigley [in May] where I felt the defense came back and I felt like I was back to being myself again. ” Mitchell said. “I feel like I’m in a great spot mentally, moving with confidence. Got to go make the play. There’s nothing more to do in that situation.”.

Mitchell added: “I’ll give up my body any day of the week to try and get a ‘W.’”

Even with the sun at full blast and the swings at their loudest. the Brewers still couldn’t turn their chances into clean baseball. The blueprint of the night was messy: Harrison’s inability to go deep. a squeeze attempt that didn’t make it out of the dirt. 13 straight hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. and bullpen labor that eventually carried the win.

By the time the 11th arrived. though. the game gave them the kind of break they hadn’t generated on their own. Chourio’s jam—two feet, into the ground—followed by Thompson’s wild throw home, turned the pressure into runs. Turang then pushed it further with a two-run single, and the Brewers finished off the Diamondbacks 7-4 in 11 innings.

The box score read the simple ending. The way it happened read something else entirely.

Milwaukee Brewers Arizona Diamondbacks Pat Murphy Kyle Harrison Grant Anderson Jackson Chourio Brice Turang Garrett Mitchell July 3 Chase Field 11 innings