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Major League Baseball
Milwaukee 10, Miami 2
When: 8:10 PM ET, Friday, September 15, 2017
Where: Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Temperature: 75°
Umpires: Home - Ryan Additon, 1B - Todd Tichenor, 2B - Kerwin Danley, 3B - Bill Miller
Attendance: 19369

MILWAUKEE -- In an effort to make the Miami Marlins feel a little more at home this weekend, the Milwaukee Brewers added a few touches of South Beach around Miller Park.

But fake palm trees and pink flamingos did little to help ease the pain of allowing four home runs, including three in an eight-run eighth inning as the Marlins extended their losing streak to six games with a 10-2 drubbing at Miller Park.

"We talked about this being a big game," said Marlins manager Don Mattingly, whose team was supposed to be hosting the Brewers this weekend at Marlins Park but instead wound up in Milwaukee as the city of Miami recovers from Hurricane Irma.

"We wanted to treat this like a big game out of respect for everyone in the league. This is not a game you're playing where there isn't any ramifications on other clubs. We wanted to play this game with the idea that you have to play your best baseball."

For seven innings, the Marlins did. Stephen Vogt gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead with a two run homer in the second, but those were the only runs Jose Urena allowed in his 4 2/3-inning stint.

Miami's offense tied it up in the bottom of the inning on RBI singles by Justin Bour and Urena and the Marlins' kept the Brewers off the board through the seventh, when Drew Steckenrider worked himself into and out of a jam, walking two batters but retiring the next two to maintain the tie.

Zrian Ellington (0-1) wasn't so lucky. He struck out Domingo Santana to open the eighth but couldn't get a 101 MPH fastball past Eric Thames, who crushed it to right-center for his 31st of the season and third in as many days.

Things took another turn as Manny Pina came to the plate. Inserted as a sub an inning earlier for Vogt, Mattingly was under the impression he entered the game as part of a double-switch and the pitcher should be coming to the plate instead.

He engaged in a lengthy argument with home plate umpire Ryan Additon, who made a mistake in relaying the information to both the scoreboard crew and Mattingly.

"Ryan wrote them in as a straight change -- catcher into the seventh spot, pitcher into the ninth spot -- then he accidentally made a mistake and signaled the scoreboard and Mattingly that there was a double switch," Crew chief Bill Miller told a pool reporter after the game. So, in that situation, obviously we're not going to penalize the Brewers for a mistake that was made by the umpire.

"We pulled out the lineup cards, Ryan tried to explain that he made the mistake, that Counsell had given him the straight changes instead of a double switch, and on the lineup card it showed a straight change and not a double switch."

Pina kept the inning going with a single and after getting Brett Phillips to fly out to center, Ellington walked pinch-hitter Jett Bandy and Eric Sogard, loading the bases for Neil Walker who broke the game open with a grand slam to center.

"Going fastball there man, I felt like it was down in the zone," Ellington sad. "If I could go back and do it all over again, I'd probably throw a couple different pitches. Obviously they were looking for fastballs and they were ready to hit 'em."

The Brewers weren't quite done. Ryan Braun singled to chase Ellington and Dustin McGown gave up a base hit to his first batter before Domingo Santana clubbed a three-run homer.

Milwaukee's late offensive explosion overshadowed another strong effort from the Brewers' bullpen. Counsell used eight different pitchers Friday, with Jeremy Jeffress working two innings in his first-ever big league start.

Josh Hader struck out five of the six batters he faced in two scoreless innings and Jared Hughes picked up the victory striking out one batter in his scoreless inning.

"Everybody did their jobs tonight," said Counsell, whose team has won three in a row and six of its last seven but remained three games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.

NOTES: While Miami was officially the home team Friday, and will be all weekend, all stats will count as road games for the Marlins and home stats for the Brewers. ... Milwaukee selected the contract of RHP Aaron Wilkerson from Double-A Biloxi and designated INF Yadiel Rivera for assignment. The Brewers also placed RHP Jimmy Nelson (torn labrum) on the 10-day disabled list. He's scheduled to undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder Tuesday. ... The Marlins have lost 16 of their last 18 and given up 53 runs during their six-game losing streak.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Milwaukee   Miami
Jeremy Jeffress Player Jose Urena
No Decision W/L No Decision
2.0 IP 4.2
0 Strikeouts 3
4 Hits 4
9.00 ERA 3.86
Hitting
Milwaukee   Miami
Eric Thames Player Miguel Rojas
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 0
1 HR 0
6 TB 2
1.000 Avg .667
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Milwaukee 12 4 25 .324 17 9 10 8 1 0
Miami 6 0 7 .182 8 13 2 1 0 0