I went to a Brewers game in early June with Chase Anderson facing the San Francisco Giants. A couple rows behind me a Brewers fan said ‘Yanno Chase Anderson is our ace this season’, and I sort of scoffed at that idea. Looking at it in mid-September, that guy was right. Anderson is the ace of this pitching staff. It’s absolutely weird to think that’s where this season took us. Chase was stellar tonight going six innings and striking out eight batters holding Pittsburgh to zero runs as Milwaukee hangs on 1-0.

The sixth inning escape
This was arguably the biggest inning of the game, and perhaps, the month of September. Pirates had a baserunner on third with no outs in the inning. Anything would have scored Adam Frazier from third with Starling Marte on first base to cause more damage. Instead, Anderson gets Andrew McCutchen swinging, Josh Bell to fly out and Gregory Polanco to pop out to end the inning. It was one of the Brewers’ ace’s best innings of the year.

Domingo goes bingo
The only run in the game was from Domingo Santana who hit a screamer down the left field line for a home run. Santana is now at 26 for the year, and there’s a real chance he might hit 30 for the season. No one saw this coming from him. He compares to Corey Hart, and it’s clear that’s the type of player we get from the Brewers right fielder. The best part about Santana is he’s only 23 years young. He had a multi-hit night along with Ryan Braun.

Bullpen does the damn thing again
It’s worth giving the bullpen a shoutout for being amazing down the stretch here. Anthony Swarzak worked two strong innings setting the table for Corey Knebel. Knebel worked his magic for a pure 1-2-3 inning where the Pirates bats had zero answer for his fastball/curveball combo. My guess is that Brewers will sit Knebel down tomorrow so he’s fresh for this weekend, but who knows.

Next up
Aaron Wilkerson makes his first start as a Brewer tonight facing off against Steven Brault. Brewers need some revenge against the lefty gas can, and I would love nothing more than a crooked number early.