Brewers manager Pat Murphy on Jace Peterson’s consultant role
Jace Peterson, who played for the Brewers from 2020-22, returned for 2025 as a performance consultant. Manager Pat Murphy explains his role and fit.
The Brewers lost to the Braves, 7-1, marking their third loss in four games of their current homestand.Braves pitcher Chris Sale, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, struck out 11 Brewers batters over seven innings.Atlanta hit three home runs, including two off Brewers relievers brought in for favorable matchups.
For the first time since 2016, the Milwaukee Brewers have faced the defending Cy Young Award winners from both leagues.
It has not gone well.
Chris Sale, who was named the National League’s best pitcher in 2024, struck out 11 over a dominant seven innings as the Milwaukee Brewers dropped a 7-1 decision to the Atlanta Braves on Monday night, June 9 at American Family Field.
“He’s the right dude, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of the left-hander, who improved to 4-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.79 in helping the Braves snap their seven-game losing streak.
“I’m just impressed with him,” Murphy continued. “He was dominant.”
Milwaukee, meanwhile, fell to 1-3 on its 10-game homestand during which it’s been shut out twice and managed a total of five runs and to 35-32 overall.
Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and Eli White all homered for Atlanta, with Olson’s and White’s foiling Murphy’s attempts at giving his team more favorable pitching matchups in the moment.
The Brewers, who managed their run on a William Contreras single in the third, also were handcuffed by the reigning Cy Young winner in the American League, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, on April 14.
In 2016, the Brewers faced the NL and AL Cy Young Award winners four times – the Chicago Cubs’ Jake Arrieta three times and Houston’s Dallas Keuchel.
They went 1-2 against Arrieta and also beat Keuchel the lone time facing him that year.
An early lead against Chris Sale
The Brewers actually out-hit the Braves, 4-3, in the first three innings with a Joey Ortiz double into the right-field corner starting the Milwaukee third.
He tagged and went to third on a Jackson Chourio sacrifice fly and came in to score on a bouncing two-out single up the middle by Contreras.
Sale’s counterpart, Aaron Civale, lived dangerously but managed to get away with it as he put the first two batters on in both the second and fourth innings as well as the leadoff man in the third yet each time managed to keep the Braves off the scoreboard.
A frustrating fifth inning
Civale managed to retire the leadoff man in the fifth inning only to surrender the tying homer to right by Acuña.
After Civale allowed a two-out double to Austin Riley, Murphy opted to replace the right-hander with DL Hall with the left-handed slugger Olson due up.
That move worked out as poorly as possible, as Olson blasted Hall’s first offering out to center for a 3-1 Braves lead.
“We were going to give (Civale) the inning but then he gave up three hard contacts, and it’s the third time around and we have a left-hander ready who can go multiple innings, and he did,” Murphy said. “But when he came in the game, the first pitch he threw obviously was supposed to be one place and it was another.
“That’s baseball with a guy like Olson.”
Hall, who navigated the rest of his three-inning outing after the Olson homer just fine, took the blame for the missed pitch.
“Coming out of the ‘pen you can’t be soft out of the gate – you have to go right at them,” he said. “I kind of eased into the first pitch and he made me pay for it. He’s a good hitter and so he did what he was supposed to do.
“I should have been locked in sooner.”
Sale, well, sailed after the third as he struck out the side in the fourth and sixth. A single to open the Milwaukee seventh made Daz Cameron the team’s lone baserunner against Sale after the third and just its second over the final six innings.
No relief for the Brewers
Hall recorded the first two outs in the eighth before surrendering a single to Ozzie Albies, which just so happened to be the 1,000th hit of the second baseman’s career.
On came Grant Anderson for the righty-righty matchup against White, and once again the strategy failed as he homered into the Brewers’ bullpen in left-center in a full count to increase the deficit to 5-1.
Sale walked Brice Turang to start the Brewers’ eighth and was replaced by Raisel Iglesias, who finished out the inning.
Sale scattered five hits, a run and two walks with 11 strikeouts – the fourth 10-plus-strikeout performance of the season for him and 91st of his career, ranking him eighth all-time. Sale is two behind Curt Schilling for seventh place.
“The fact that he came back out at 99 pitches tells you a lot,” Murphy said. “He was with his team right there, you know? He was thinking, ‘You know what? We’ve lost seven in a row, we have a great team, I’m going to kick it in.’”
A two-run single by Marcell Ozuna off Anderson in the ninth capped the scoring.
“There were some good performances,” said Murphy, “but on a night like tonight you just have to turn the page and give credit where credit is due.”
What time is the Brewers game tonight?
Time: 6:40 p.m.
What channel is the Brewers game on tonight?
TV Channel: FanDuel Sports Wisconsin.
Brewers lineupJackson Chourio CFWilliam Contreras CChristian Yelich DHRhys Hoskins 1BDaz Cameron LFSal Frelick RFCaleb Durbin 3BJoey Ortiz SSBrice Turang 2BBraves lineupRonald Acuña Jr. RFDrake Baldwin CAustin Riley 3BMatt Olson 1BMarcell Ozuna DHMichael Harris II CFOzzie Albies 2BAlex Verdugo LFNick Allen SSBrewers schedule
Brewers vs. Braves, 6:40 p.m. June 10. Milwaukee RHP Quinn Priester (3-2, 3.88) vs. Atlanta RHP Grant Holmes (3-4, 3.99). TV – FanDuel Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers vs. Padres, 1:10 p.m. June 11. Milwaukee RHP Chad Patrick (3-5, 2.84) vs. Atlanta RHP Spencer Schwellenbach (4-4, 3.24). TV – FanDuel Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.