Domingo Santana singled home the tie-breaking run in the ninth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Phillies, 9-8, Saturday night.
Ryan Braun went 3 for 3 with a homer and four RBIs for the NL Central-leading Brewers, who snapped a season-worst six-game losing streak despite frittering away an 8-1 lead.
Odubel Herrera went 4 for 4 with a homer and Cameron Rupp hit a game-tying three-run shot in the eighth for the Phillies, who saw a three-game winning streak end.
Cesar Hernandez hit a three-run homer for the Phils.
Braun, hitting .398 with 11 homers and 33 RBIs in 30 career games at Citizens Bank Park, fell a triple short of the cycle and scored three runs for the NL Central-leading Brewers.
Milwaukee’s Travis Shaw also hit his 22nd homer while going 3 for 4.
MLB
With the game tied at 8-8, Eric Thames opened the ninth with a double off Phils reliever Hector Neris (2-4). Hernan Perez bunted into a fielder’s choice at third, but Shaw and Santana singled to produce the game-winning run.
Jacob Barnes (3-1) earned the victory for Milwaukee despite allowing Rupp’s homer in the eighth. Corey Knebel worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 17th save.
The start of the game was delayed 26 minutes by rain.
Starting pitching report
Jeremy Hellickson, who has fashioned a 5.81 ERA after going 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA in April, surrendered four runs in the third, on Braun’s two-run double, a wild pitch and Domingo Santana’s RBI single.
Braun added a two-run homer off Hellickson in the fifth, his 12th of the season.
Hellickson worked five innings and allowed six runs on seven hits while striking out six and walking two.
Milwaukee’s Brent Suter, who did not crack 90 mph with his fastball, waded through a second-and-third, one-out jam in the second by fanning Rupp and Hellickson.
In all, he needed 85 pitches (62 of them strikes) to go six innings. He allowed one run on five hits while whiffing five. He did not walk a batter.
Bullpen report
Adam Morgan surrendered Shaw’s solo homer in the seventh, an inning in which he was also victimized by some shoddy defense.
With one out Morgan walked Braun, but with Shaw at the plate caught him running from first. First baseman Tommy Joseph overthrew Freddy Galvis at second base, however, and Braun continued home when leftfielder Howie Kendrick allowed the ball to get through him.
Hoby Milner worked a scoreless inning before Neris came on the scene.
The Phillies’ four seventh-inning runs come off reliever Oliver Drake — the first on an RBI double by pinch hitter Cameron Perkins, the other three on Hernandez’s bomb.
Jared Hughes rescued Drake, retiring Maikel Franco and Joseph with two outs and two on, but Rupp hit his homer off Barnes in the eighth.
At the plate
Herrera has reached base safely in nine straight games and is hitting .331 since June 1. The homer was his ninth of the season.
Nick Williams extended his hitting streak to seven games with an eighth-inning single, and Rupp’s homer, his seventh, allowed him to stretch his hitting streak to five.
The Brewers had managed 12 runs during their losing streak but erupted for 13 hits.
Braun, batting .379 in his career against the Phils, reached base four times, as did Shaw. Orlando Arcia was aboard three times, Santana and Thames twice apiece.
Medical report
Manager Pete Mackanin said before the game outfielder Daniel Nava is day to day with a strained left hamstring, and added Aaron Altherr, on the disabled list since July 15 with a straight right hamstring, has made “very good progress” and could be activated as soon as Tuesday (see story).
Up next
RHP Jerad Eickhoff (1-7, 4.83) gets the start as the Phils conclude their three-game set against the Brewers on Sunday afternoon. He will be opposed by RHP Junior Guerra (1-3, 4.77).