Jesús Aguilar backs up his prediction as Brewers top Mets

Todd Rosiak
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar clubs a three-run home run in the third inning against the Mets on Sunday at Miller Park.

Jesús Aguilar just knew the Milwaukee Brewers were going to beat the New York Mets on Sunday afternoon, and he told Jhoulys Chacín so just after a rough second inning left the right-hander trailing by three runs.

One inning after that Aguilar hit a three-run home run to tie the game, and a four-run seventh inning wound up being enough to prove the slugger correct as the surging Brewers pulled out an 8-7 victory at Miller Park to win their fifth consecutive series.

"I said, ‘Hold it right there,' " recounted Aguilar, who drove in a season-high four runs. " 'Don’t worry about the hitting because we’re hitting good, and we’re going to be back. We’re going to win this game.’

"That happened. We tied the game right there, and then we started pitching much better. We battled. We battled them today. Now we have to keep going."

THE GAME:5 Takeaways | Box score

NOTES:Brewers recall reliever Jacob Barnes from Class AAA

MLB:Live scoreboard, box scores, standings, statistics

With the way the Brewers swung the bats in Saturday's 17-6 drubbing that also included overcoming a couple early deficits, the possibility of another offensive outburst didn't appear to be that far-fetched.

Aguilar's RBI single in the first inning gave Chacín a quick 1-0 lead, but the Mets sent 10 batters to the plate in a second that saw the right-hander surrender five singles, a walk and he also hit a batter.

New York's lead was 4-1 before Chacín finally worked his way out of the frame.

"He had an inning where they put together a bunch of base hits at the bottom of the order," said manager Craig Counsell. "It could have been worse but he limited the damage. It put us in a little bit of a hole."

Mets starter Zack Wheeler — who along with Wilmer Flores were almost Brewers until the Mets scuttled that 2015 trade that would have sent them Carlos Gomez — drove in two of the four runs with a single in that second.

He set Milwaukee down in order in the bottom of the frame before starting the next inning by walking Lorenzo Cain. Christian Yelich singled to bring up Aguilar, who sent a moon shot of a homer to left to make it a new ballgame at 4-4 and back up what he'd told Chacín earlier.

"I just try to go up there to do my job," said Aguilar, who now ranks second on the Brewers behind Travis Shaw with nine homers and 30 RBI. "I try to take a quality at-bat every time. I try to see the ball, try to go to the middle, to help the team as much as I can.

"That’s what’s happening. Now I need to keep going."

The Mets scored once more in the fifth against Chacín, who wound up lasting 6 ⅓ innings in all.

Wheeler clamped down on the Brewers after Aguilar's homer and after Boone Logan replaced Chacín and surrendered a homer to the first batter he faced, Asdrúbal Cabrera, the Mets had opened a 6-4 lead.

Robert Gsellman replaced Wheeler and had two outs and one on in the bottom of the seventh when Aguilar did it again by drawing a five-pitch walk that led to manager Mickey Callaway pulling him for left-hander Jerry Blevins with Shaw due up.

"For me, it was a strike," Aguilar said of Ball 4. "I was kind of surprised. It was a little bit down, but still a good pitch. But he called it a ball.

"I’ll take it."

Shaw greeted Blevins with a bloop single to left that scored Christian Yelich and pulled the Brewers to within 6-5.

"I thought Travis had the big at-bat," Counsell said. "They brought in Blevins to face him and he hung tough. Took a couple good swings, almost doubled down the right-field line then hung in there.

"He got jammed a little bit, but a nice swing to lay it out there."

Up next was Domingo Santana, who'd failed to deliver in three previous at-bats — all with runners on base. Facing right-hander Paul Sewald, Santana punched a two-run double down the right-field line and ended up on third on the throw home.

On Sewald's next pitch, Jonathan Villar lined a double to right that scored Santana and upped Milwaukee's lead to 8-6.

"Domingo hit a ball a little off the end, it looked like, and it fell in there," said Counsell. "Villar was aggressive with a first pitch and smoked a ball. It was a good rally. It's a two-out rally and we got four runs.

"Man on first and two outs and all of a sudden four runs."

Jeremy Jeffress took over for Logan in the eighth and turned in his 23rd consecutive scoreless appearance (22 ⅔ innings, 21 strikeouts), tying him with Doug Jones (1997) and John Axford (2013) and Francisco Rodriguez (2013-'14) for the longest such streak in franchise history.

Another dicey ninth by Corey Knebel left the outcome in doubt as Devin Mesoraco greeted him with a homer to center and Amed Rosario drew a one-out walk and then stole second base to put the tying runner in scoring position with the top of the lineup due.

But Knebel recovered to strike out both Cabrera and Michael Conforto and move the Brewers to 7-1 on the homestand with the St. Louis Cardinals coming in next.

At 34-20, Milwaukee leads St. Louis by four games in the National League Central and has four more victories than the next-closest team in the Atlanta Braves.

The Brewers are also two victories shy of tying to the Boston Red Sox for the most wins in the major leagues.

"It speaks to playing good baseball. Good consistent baseball," Counsell said in wrapping up his team's recent play. "A lot of different names. We're bringing up a lot of different names every night after a win. That's what happens.

"It's onto the next one. A big challenge and a big division rival."