The Milwaukee Brewers lost to the division rival Cincinnati Reds on Friday night by a score of 6-5. Their ninth inning rally consisting of two runs scored came up short after Blake Perkins ended the game by popping out on a bunt attempt with the tying run 90 feet away. Post game he explained his rationale.
Before we get to the dramatic ending let’s review what happened earlier in the game.
Freddy Peralta struggled again as the Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher in this game.
Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day starting pitcher Freddy Peralta struggled again in this game. He threw 5.1 innings, gave up ten hits, six earned runs, and a pair of home runs to TJ Friedl and Jeimer Candelario. Per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com this is the first time in Peralta’s career that he has given up double-digit hits. Last time out Peralta walked five batters in a game for the first time since 2018. His season ERA has now risen to 4.38.
The Cincinnati Reds nearly blew a three run lead in the ninth inning but a Blake Perkins pop up on a bunt ended the game.
With Alexis Diaz on the mound for Cincinnati the Brewers proceeded to score two runs all with two outs. The ninth inning started off with back-to-back hits from Christian Yelich and Willy Adames and then Rhys Hoskins reaching on a fielding error.
After this Sal Frelick lined out for the first out of the inning, Joey Ortiz then collected a bases loaded RBI walk, and Jackson Chourio singled in a run. On Chourio’s single Jake Bauers, the potential game tying run, was thrown out at home. With two outs and the new game tying run at third base Blake Perkins then popped out on a bunt attempt on the first pitch he saw that ended the game.
Oh boy a pop up bunt ends the game for the Brewers pic.twitter.com/ZgrBrqNBgq
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 15, 2024
Blake Perkins explains his rationale behind the bunt attempt and says, “no one’s more disappointed in the outcome than me”.
When asked about the decision to bunt Blake Perkins indicated that this was a decision he made. In his interview from David Gasper at Reviewing the Brew you can tell the outcome was eating him up, but he explained that with statistically better hitters behind him he thought that he might catch the Reds off guard.
“No one’s more disappointed in the outcome than me”
Blake Perkins explains his thought process behind his 9th inning bunt 👇 pic.twitter.com/cFUtiAdjkm
— David Gasper (@dgasper24) June 15, 2024
As Perkins mentioned his manager Pat Murphy had his back post game as they debriefed what had happened and acknowledged that the best thing to do is learn from this, move on, and go get them tomorrow. The Brewers and Reds will play their next game on Saturday, June 15 with the first pitch scheduled for 3:10 PM CT.
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