Peralta nearly throws birthday no-no, Brewers beat D’backs

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Freddy Peralta delivered another special performance on a special day.

Peralta celebrated his 25th birthday by carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 5-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. Peralta, Brad Boxberger and Trevor Richards combined on a one-hitter as the Brewers won for the seventh time in their last eight games.

“It was awesome, man,” Peralta said. “I enjoyed every moment of this game.”

Peralta acknowledged with a laugh that this was his best birthday yet, but it wasn’t his favorite performance of his promising young career.

That honor belongs to his major league debut, when he struck out 13 in a 2018 Mother’s Day victory over Colorado with his mom sitting in the stands.

“Mother’s Day was still the best one for me,” Peralta said.

Nick Ahmed broke up the no-hit attempt by reaching for a low 1-2 pitch and blooping it into left-center for a one-out single in the eighth. The hit came on Peralta’s 109th and final pitch. Fans stood and cheered as manager Craig Counsell took the ball from Peralta, who tipped his cap to the crowd as he walked off.

This was the closest any Brewer has come to throwing a no-hitter since April 23, 2009, when Dave Bush also had his bid broken up with one out in the eighth. Juan Nieves threw the Brewers’ only no-hitter against Baltimore on April 15, 1987.

Peralta (6-1) struck out nine, walked three and allowed one run in 7 1/3 innings. Peralta has given up more than three hits in just three of his 11 starts this season. Opponents are hitting .133 against him.

“He’s making pitches, he can get deep into games and he’s taken a really big step this year, for sure, in a lot of different phases,” Counsell said. “He pitched just a beautiful game.”

Daniel Vogelbach and Omar Narváez homered for Milwaukee as the Diamondbacks suffered a franchise-record 15th consecutive road loss. The Diamondbacks haven’t won a road game since an April 25 doubleheader sweep in Atlanta.

Narváez also capitalized on some shoddy Arizona defense to round the bases in a bizarre third-inning play that scored two runs.

Milwaukee had a runner at first with two outs when Narváez hit a shot that rolled to the wall as center fielder Pavin Smith first overran the ball and then mishandled it. Second baseman Josh Rojas attempted to throw out Narváez at third, but his wild toss got past third baseman Eduardo Escobar.

Narváez was credited with an RBI double. Smith and Rojas both were charged with errors.

The defensive breakdowns on that play bothered Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo enough that he gathered his team in the dugout at the end of the third inning.

“I don’t typically like to do things like I did, but I’d had enough,” Lovullo said. “That’s basically what I told the group. A lot of it will stay between me and the players, but what I told them was that I have extremely high expectations of this group, and we are a good baseball team, and it’s time to go out and play our type of baseball.

“At the end of the night, I can sit down and accept a win or a loss if we do things our way, and we are not meeting our standards. I got the whole group together. I didn’t care. It was that time. I needed to address that situation and let them know I feel like we could do better.”

Arizona threatened to rally after finally getting a hit in the eighth.

Ahmed’s single followed Josh Reddick’s walk and put runners on the corners with the Diamondbacks trailing 4-0. Asdrúbal Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning that right fielder Avisaíl García caught right in front of the wall.

Boxberger ended the threat by striking out Rojas.

Diamondbacks starter Matt Peacock (2-2) allowed four runs, three earned, and five hits over 4 2/3 innings.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Diamondbacks: Cabrera was activated from the injured list after recovering from a right hamstring strain that had kept him from playing since getting helped off the field May 13. … RHP Seth Frankoff went on the injured list with right forearm soreness. He joins LHP Madison Bumgarner, who was placed on the IL Thursday with left shoulder inflammation.

Brewers: 2B Kolten Wong was placed on the IL with a strained left oblique for the second time this season. Wong said he hurt it while attempting a swing in Thursday’s game. Counsell said Luis Urías will get the bulk of playing time at second base while Wong is out. … The Brewers also recalled utilityman Pablo Reyes from Triple-A Nashville and sent OF Derek Fisher to Nashville on a rehabilitation assignment.

UP NEXT

Milwaukee RHP Brandon Woodruff (4-2, 1.27 ERA) will try to earn his 11th consecutive quality start when the Brewers host RHP Merrill Kelly (2-6, 5.04) and the Diamondbacks on Saturday. Woodruff has an 0.94 ERA over his last 10 starts, and opponents are hitting just .138 against him this season.

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