Brewers survive Orioles’ late comeback as Sal Frelick delivers in 10th

Chourio lands the first blow, Alonso wipes it away

The game’s first real turn came from Jackson Chourio, who gave Milwaukee a 3-0 lead in the second inning with a 419-foot homer to center. Luis Lara and Cooper Pratt scored ahead of him, and for a moment the Brewers looked ready to spend the night on the front foot. Cade Povich lasted 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks, and that early Chourio swing accounted for all of the damage against him.

Baltimore answered with one stroke of its own. In the third, Pete Alonso pulled the Orioles level by homering to right, a three-run shot that brought home Leody Taveras and Dylan Beavers. An umpire review upheld the call, and just like that Dustin May’s start had been reset. May worked only 2 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and three runs, and the opening act belonged less to either starter than to the two biggest swings they surrendered.

Relievers own the middle, but chances keep piling up

After that exchange, the game settled into a long middle shaped by bullpens. Milwaukee stitched together 5 2/3 scoreless innings from Shane Drohan, Antonio Senzatela, DL Hall and Abner Uribe before the ninth-inning trouble arrived. Hall and Uribe were especially sharp, combining for five strikeouts across three innings. Baltimore’s relief group answered with its own run of clean work: Anthony Nunez, Luis De Leon, Yennier Cano and Josh Walker combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings after Povich departed.

What made the quiet stretch unusual was how much traffic both lineups still created. The Orioles finished with 12 hits, three walks and a hit batter, yet also struck out 13 times and left 23 runners on base. The Brewers drew six walks, stole four bases and collected 10 hits, but stranded 21 runners and struck out 10 times themselves. This was not a tidy pitchers’ duel in the usual sense; it was a game full of openings that neither side could consistently finish.

Clean defense helped keep the score from spiraling. Neither club committed an error, so the game’s tension came almost entirely from whether the next hit would arrive at the right time. For six innings after Alonso’s homer, it did not.

The ninth finally cracks open

Milwaukee was the first to break the deadlock. In the top of the ninth, William Contreras doubled to center to score Brice Turang for a 4-3 lead, and Christian Yelich followed with a single to center that brought Contreras home for 5-3. Those two at-bats rewarded a Brewers lineup that had kept making Baltimore work all night, even when the scoreboard stayed stubbornly still. Chourio’s three RBIs set the tone early, but Turang, Contreras and Yelich delivered the late sequence that gave Milwaukee a lead worth protecting.

Baltimore refused to let that be the ending. In the bottom half, Gunnar Henderson scored on Samuel Basallo’s sacrifice fly to right, with Coby Mayo advancing to third, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand then lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Mayo and tie the game 5-5. It was a different kind of rally than Milwaukee’s, built not on extra bases but on productive outs, and it showed how much Baltimore’s best hitters had already put in motion. Henderson and Mayo had three hits apiece, and the Orioles squeezed two vital runs from their final push in regulation.

Our take: Milwaukee was cleaner at the only moments that mattered

Our take: this was a one-run game, but it was also a game about missed volume. Baltimore actually out-hit Milwaukee 12-10, and both clubs had enough baserunners to win more comfortably than this. The difference was that Milwaukee found one more decisive swing in the ninth and one more decisive single in the 10th. Sal Frelick’s RBI single to right scored Joey Ortiz for the 6-5 lead, and Chad Patrick followed with a scoreless bottom of the inning to finish the job and record Milwaukee’s save.

If there is a reasonable improvement to suggest for the Brewers, it starts with sharper conversion earlier in the night. Six walks, four stolen bases and 10 hits should usually create more breathing room than six runs, and the 21 runners left on base explain why the game stayed open. For the Orioles, the lesson is similar but harsher: 12 hits, three walks and a hit batter turned into only five runs. Alonso gave them the big blast, and the ninth-inning sacrifice flies showed a practical way to score without another homer, but the 23 stranded runners and 13 strikeouts are too large to ignore. Milwaukee did not overwhelm Baltimore. It simply cashed one more chance.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   Chourio homered to center (419 feet), Lara scored and Pratt scored.

2. 3rd Inning

   Alonso homered to right (353 feet), Taveras scored and Beavers scored. Umpire review: call on the field was upheld.

3. 9th Inning

   Contreras doubled to center, Turang scored.

4. 9th Inning

   Yelich singled to center, Contreras scored.

5. 9th Inning

   Basallo hit sacrifice fly to right, Henderson scored, Mayo to third.

6. 9th Inning

   Encarnacion-Strand hit sacrifice fly to center, Mayo scored.

7. 10th Inning

   Frelick singled to right, Ortiz scored.