Freddy Peralta allowed one run over five solid innings as the Milwaukee Brewers avoided a sweep with a 5-2 victory over visiting Minnesota on Sunday, snapping the Twins 13-game winning streak.
Peralta (5-3) needed 90 pitches to navigate those innings, allowing one run. a solo homer, on three hits. He struck out five, walked two and hit two batters. Trevor Megill finished with a perfect ninth for his sixth save in seven opportunities.
Zebby Mathews (0-1), called up from Triple-A St. Paul, allowed four runs on five hits in three innings in his season debut. Minnesota had not lost since a 6-1 defeat at Boston on May 2.
Milwaukee capitalized on Matthews’ lack of command for three runs in the third to go in front 4-0. After striking out the first two hitters, Matthews issued three consecutive walks to load the bases. Alex Collins followed with a two-run single and Sal Frelick singled in a run.
Royce Lewis got Minnesota on the board in the fourth with his first homer, a one-out solo shot to left. The Twins loaded the bases with two outs on with a pair of walks around an error, but Peralta got Trevor Larnach on an inning-ending fly to right.
The Twins cut the lead to 4-2 in the seventh when Larnach doubled with one out, advanced on a fly out, and scored on Brooks Lee’s single.
Jackson Chourio preserved the lead in the eighth inning with a leaping grab of Lewis’ potential game-tying drive above the center field wall with a runner on second.
Milwaukee added a run in the eighth when William Contreras walked, advanced to third on a wild pitch and ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly.
The Brewers snapped Minnesota’s team-record streak of 34 consecutive scoreless innings with a run in the second. Christian Yelich and Rhys Hoskins opened with consecutive singles and both advanced on a sacrifice bunt. Frelick followed with an RBI single.
Carson McCusker, called up by the Twins earlier in the day from Triple-A St. Paul, pinch-hit in the eighth and bounced to the pitcher to end the inning in his first big league at-bat. The 6-8, 250-pound McCusker was hitting .350 with 10 homers and 36 RBI in 38 games at Triple-A.
