The first half of today’s game was a hard-fought pitchers’ duel, but Milwaukee pulled away after a five-run sixth inning to earn their league-leading 84th win.

Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber and Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, despite allowing some hard contact, both escaped the first five innings without allowing a run.

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The only trouble Peralta ran into all game came with two outs in the third. The veteran right-hander had already needed fourteen pitches to strike out the first two hitters (Davis Schneider and Andres Gimenez). He then hit George Springer and walked Addison Barger to put two on for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Luckily, Guerrero waved at a curveball down and away for the third out.

Still, Peralta ended up throwing 34 pitches, leaving him at 60 through three. It initially looked like Peralta, despite pitching well, wasn’t going to last long enough to pick up the win. However, he managed to be significantly more efficient over the next couple of innings. Peralta retired the side in the fourth (eleven pitches) and fifth (nine pitches) to keep his pitch count to 80 through five. Bieber wasn’t far behind, totaling 78 pitches going into the top of the sixth.

Andruw Monasterio led off the top of the sixth by working the count full on Bieber. The payoff pitch was a slider up in the zone that Monasterio was ready for:

Mona’s solo home run put the Brewers ahead 1-0. The next hitter, leadoff man Brice Turang, grounded a single into right. Bieber then hung another slider to William Contreras, but Contreras missed it — swinging under the ball and lofting a harmless pop fly to left field.

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With Christian Yelich up next and Bieber at 92 pitches, Blue Jays manager John Schneider had seen enough. He brought in lefty Brendon Little to face Yelich, who worked a walk on six pitches. That put runners on first and second for Andrew Vaughn, who grounded a single through the hole between shortstop and third base. Turang scored without a play at the plate to make it 2-0.

Little froze Sal Frelick, the next batter, on a knuckle curve for the second out. With Caleb Durbin coming up, Schneider decided to play the matchup game again — pulling Little in favor of right-hander Louis Varland. Durbin sent Varland’s seventh pitch into right field for another run, scoring Yelich and advancing Vaughn to third.

The Brewers weren’t done there, either. Isaac Collins ripped a double down the right field line, clearing the bases to give the Brewers their fourth and fifth runs of the inning.

Varland then retired Blake Perkins for the third out, but the damage was done.

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In the bottom of the sixth, Peralta put together a third straight three up, three down, shutdown inning. Peralta’s day would be done after six innings and 95 pitches. He allowed one hit and one walk, striking out eight Blue Jays in the process. His ERA on the season is now 2.58, second-best in the National League after Cy Young frontrunner Paul Skenes. Peralta has now gone four consecutive starts without allowing a run, dating back to August 5th against the Braves.

Milwaukee got a couple more insurance runs in the top of the seventh after a Turang single and a Contreras double put runners on second and third with one out. Toronto brought the infield in for Yelich, who scored Turang by grounding out to Gimenez at second. Gimenez tripped while fielding the ball, but he wouldn’t have had a play at the plate anyway with Turang running on contact. Vaughn kept the rally going by lining his third single of the game into right field, scoring Contreras to make it 7-0 Brewers.

Aaron Ashby, in for Peralta to start the seventh, allowed a leadoff single to Bo Bichette before hitting Daulton Varsho on the hand. Varsho was clearly in pain and ended up having to leave the game, with Myles Straw entering the game to pinch-run.

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Ashby then melted down, walking Alejandro Kirk on five pitches that all missed the zone before throwing two quick balls to Nathan Lukes. Ashby battled back and got Lukes to stare at strike three for the first out, but Davis Schneider delivered for the Blue Jays with a two-run single into left field. At this point, Shelby Miller was quickly warming up in the bullpen, but Ashby hung in against Gimenez to induce an inning-ending double-play.

The score after seven innings was 7-2, which is how the game would end. Miller and Abner Uribe closed the game out for the Brewers’ league-leading 84th win. Vaughn finished the game with three hits, while three other Brewers (Turang, Collins, and Durbin) each had two.

Milwaukee takes the field tomorrow at 2:07 p.m. with a chance to win the series. Quinn Priester will get the ball for the Brewers against Kevin Gausman. As always, the game will be broadcast live on FanDuel Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.