The Brewers handed ace Max Scherzer his first loss with the Texas Rangers as Milwaukee won 6-2 on Sunday to sweep the three-game series between division-leading teams in Arlington, Texas.
Scherzer was 3-0 with 1.80 ERA in his first three Rangers starts since waiving his no-trade clause to join Texas from the New York Mets for top Rangers prospect Luisangel Acuna before the trade deadline.
But this time, Scherzer was done, trailing 3-1, after allowing back-to-back doubles from Tyrone Taylor and Christian Yelich with two outs in the fourth.
Scherzer left after 99 pitches — including 42 in the third — through only 3 2/3 innings. Much of that was due to several foul balls by a patient Brewers offense, as Scherzer walked three and hit a batter in the third.
Scherzer (12-5) hit Willy Adames with the bases loaded to force in Taylor with a run and then walked Rowdy Tellez to bring in Yelich for a 2-0 Brewers lead.
The Rangers cut that lead in half in the bottom of the third when Corey Seager blasted a 436-foot homer, his 23rd of the year, to dead center off Brewers right-hander Adrian Houser.
Milwaukee added some insurance against Rangers closer Will Smith in the top of the eighth when Victor Caratini and Brice Turang scored on Taylor’s stand-up triple into the right-field corner. Carlos Santana then delivered an RBI single up the middle to score Taylor for a five-run lead.
Scherzer gave up just three hits but three earned runs, as he walked four against four strikeouts. On the plus side, Scherzer passed Phil Niekro to move into 11th on the all-time strikeouts list by whiffing Turang to open the third for career strikeout No. 3,343.
Milwaukee’s Houser (5-4) scattered six hits over five innings with one walk and seven strikeouts.
The Rangers pushed across the game’s last run on a groundout from Leody Taveras, scoring Ezequiel Duran in the ninth. Devin Williams recorded the final out to notch his 30th save of the year.
It was the Brewers’ second series sweep of the month and seventh of the season. The Rangers are 4-6 over their last 10 games while Milwaukee has gone 7-3.
–Field Level Media
