On a night when the offense struggled, Brewers needed to get Christian Yelich to plate in 8th

The Brewers needed to get Christian Yelich to the plate with two on in the eighth inning, not leading off the ninth.

That turn of events proved to be a crucial juncture Thursday night in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.

The Brewers were doing so little offensively against lefty Julio Urias and the Dodgers’ bullpen, they didn’t get a runner to second base until two were down in the eighth inning. Hernán Pérez led off with a single and later swiped second, and third base coach Ed Sedar waved him home on Lorenzo Cain’s single to left field.

That proved to be a big mistake.

Los Angeles leftfielder Alex Verdugo, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Urias in the seventh inning, made a perfect throw home and Pérez was an easy out to end the inning. The hitter standing on deck? Yelich, the reigning NL MVP and a white-hot hitter having a historic first month of the season.

BOX SCORE:Dodgers 3, Brewers 1

Getting Pérez thrown out at the plate became more egregious when Yelich led off the ninth with a booming home run to center off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who has allowed runs to the Brewers in consecutive outings after blanking them for the first 22 of his career. Yelich reached 10 homers in 20 games, fastest in Brewers history, while establishing a franchise record with 27 RBI for March/April.

But all Yelich’s blast did was make the final score, 3-1, instead of the chance to make it 3-3 in the eighth. Yes, the circumstances might have been different had Sedar held Perez and Yelich came to the plate. Reliever Joe Kelly might have stayed in the game, with Jansen waiting for the ninth.

But when Yelich is your only chance to tie the game, you have to let him take it.

“Look, the guy made a great throw,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “But I think it’s one that Ed would probably want back, yeah.”

It was easy to second-guess such things in a game like this. While Urias was mowing through the Brewers’ lineup with the greatest of ease – one hit, nine strikeouts in six innings – Milwaukee starter Zach Davies was battling his butt off to keep the dangerous Dodgers off the board.

Davies managed to string together five zeroes but the Los Angeles hitters made him work so hard to do so, his pitch count rose to 97. Counsell figured that was enough and Matt Albers took over in the sixth, getting rocked for home runs by Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy that accounted for all of the Dodgers runs.

“Zach threw the ball really well, but they made him work,” Counsell said. “It was kind of surprising because it didn’t feel laborious at all for Zach, but he was at 100 pitches, basically, through five innings.”

Davies was facing the Dodgers for the second time in a row after holding them to one run over seven innings in Los Angeles last Saturday. This time, he said, they took a different approach against him at the plate.

“My goal is to pitch six, seven innings every time out there,” Davies said. “They were more patient this time. They weren’t too aggressive early (in at-bats). They tried to get in hitters’ counts, and a few times they did. That was probably their plan from the start, to get my pitch count up.

“It was one of those days where I could have ‘stolen’ a few strikes because of how patient they were. But you don’t really know that until you’re in the game. They stuck to their approach. I didn’t have my best stuff or location, so going through five (innings) with no damage was pretty good.”

The Dodgers’ offense is scary because their hitters are patient and willing to take walks. But, if you make a mistake, they are ready to do major damage, as evidenced by their league-leading 40 home runs.

“Look, it’s a really good lineup, a tough lineup,” Counsell said. “Overall, we pitched very well. They just had one inning where they got it. One run is not going to cut it on most nights.”

Which is why it hurt to see Pérez get thrown out at the plate with Yelich standing on-deck as the potential tying run. Anything seems possible for him right now, including the silly home run and RBI totals with 11 games remaining in April. 

“He just continues to swing the bat very well,” Counsell said. “Hard contact, man. He’s a challenge. Just a whole lot of hard contact.”

Or, as Pérez put it, “We know when he’s standing at the plate, something is going to happen. He’s going to put a good swing on the ball. It’s crazy. Ten homers and we’re like in the middle of April. He’s one of the best hitters in baseball right now.”