Brewers Top Marlins, 8-5
MIAMI (AP) — Rickie Weeks homered twice and drove in four runs to help Wily Peralta win his first major league start and lead the surging Milwaukee Brewers over the Miami Marlins 8-5 on Wednesday night.
Corey Hart also homered and drove in four runs for Milwaukee, which has won 13 of 16 to climb within 6 1/2 games of St. Louis for the second NL wild card spot.
Milwaukee (67-69) also trails the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh, with Atlanta currently on top of the wild card standings.
Peralta (1-0) pitched six innings, allowing three runs and five hits. The 23-year old right-hander struck out three and walked four.
Weeks hit a pair of two-run homers for his sixth career multihomer and first since hitting two on July 18, 2010 at Atlanta. He is hitting .484 (15 for 31) with two home runs and six RBIs during a seven-game hitting streak.
Nathan Eovaldi (4-11) surrendered the first home run to Weeks to left field in the third inning. Eovaldi allowed two runs and struck out four in five innings.
Weeks' second home run to left field came off Tom Koehler, also making his major league debut, to give the Brewers a 4-1 lead in the seventh. Hart followed with his 27th home run, a two-run shot to left-center.
The Marlins cut the deficit to 6-5 with four runs in the bottom of the seventh on three consecutive RBI singles by Greg Dobbs, Bryan Petersen, and Donovan Solano, and a sacrifice fly by Jose Reyes. Jim Henderson then got Giancarlo Stanton to fly out to get out of the jam.
Hart hit a two-run double to cap the scoring for the Brewers before John Axford pitched the ninth for his 25th save in 33 chances.
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