Milwaukee Brewers starter Brent Suter had no answers for the Los Angeles Dodgers offense on Sunday, allowing eight hits and six runs over three innings pitched in the finale of a three-game series at Miller Park.
The Dodgers had jumped to an early 11-2 lead by the conclusion of the fifth inning, propelled by the bat of Matt Kemp, who slugged his 16th and 17th home runs of the season.
With the score well out of reach in the seventh inning, the Brewers opted to preserve their bullpen and instead, sent second baseman Hernan Perez to the mound for his third career pitching appearance.
He tossed a scoreless frame, striking out Dodgers starter Alex Wood on a 79 mph fastball before recording the final two outs in succession.
After the game, Wood described his encounter with Perez in the batter’s box and revealed it was just as challenging facing him when compared to a regular pitcher, via Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times:
“It proved to be more difficult than I thought it was going to be,” Wood said.
Prior to retiring Wood, Perez struggled with his command and created some traffic on the base paths. He walked Logan Forsythe to lead off the inning and then promptly hit Austin Barnes with a pitch that registered only 47 mph on the radar gun.
Barnes detailed what it was like getting hit by such a slow pitch and likened it to a softball:
“It doesn’t feel like much,” he said. “That was a weird at-bat. It was like slow-pitch softball.”
Perez would toss another scoreless inning in the eighth before the Brewers handed the ball to Erik Kratz — another position player — in the ninth. He, too, would hold the Dodgers without a run in what was his first appearance on the mound since 2016.
While the Brewers position players combined to toss three shutout innings, any time you are facing non-pitchers it is usually a good thing, and the Dodgers came away with the blowout victory to win the series.
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