Felder’s Five Hits Help the Brewers Beat Tigers, 8-5

Milwaukee outfielder Mike Felder, playing in only his 18th game of the season, made the most of his opportunity Thursday with five hits in six at-bats.

Felder had a two-run triple and his single started a three-run seventh-inning rally in which two walks and a hit batter forced in runs as the Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-5.

“I try to stay aggressive,” said Felder, who spent five weeks with Denver of the American Association. “A lot of guys who don’t play regular will take a lot of pitches because they haven’t played. They want to look at some pitches.

“I don’t do that because I don’t want to get behind in the count. I go up there swinging. Today, they were falling in for me.”

With the Brewers trailing, 4-3, Felder led off the inning with a single to right off Eric King. Rick Manning reached on a fielder’s choice when catcher Mike Heath’s throw to second on his bunt was late, and Cecil Cooper, attempting to sacrifice, beat out another bunt for a hit.

Pinch-hitter Glenn Braggs then lined back to King, whose throw to first doubled off Cooper, and Greg Brock was walked intentionally to re-load the bases.

King walked Jim Paciorek to force in Felder and hit Bill Schroeder with an 0-2 pitch to force in Manning. Morris Madden, making his major league debut, took over with a 1-0 count on Jim Gantner and threw three successive balls to force Brock across.

“One inning beat us,” Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson said. “One hit, two bunts, three walks and a hit batsman. That’s awful.

“I would have prefered not to use Madden in a situation like that today. I don’t like to have kids learn to pitch in the bullpen. Today, we were forced into it.”

Juan Castillo singled home two more runs in the eighth to make it 8-4 and Darrell Evans hit his eighth homer in the ninth for Detroit’s final run.

Bill Wegman (5-5) was the winner, allowing 4 runs and 8 hits in 6 innings. Chris Bosio pitched the final three innings for his second save.

“It’s a funny game,” Milwaukee Manager Tom Trebelhorn said. “We swung the bats pretty good to stay in the game, then have to resort to luck to win it.”

King, who took over for starter Jeff Robinson in the sixth was the loser, falling to 3-6.

Milwaukee won two games in the three-game series and have now have won nine of their last 12 games. They opened the season with 13 straight wins and later lost 12 straight.

“The thing about this series is that we started hitting. We’re not playing bad, either,” Trebelhorn said. “We like to lay in the weeds and trick people.”

The Brewers, who benefitted from 12 walks by five Detroit pitchers, took a 2-0 lead in the second. Paciorek and Dale Sveum walked and scored on Felder’s two-out triple.

But the Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the third.

John Grubb led off with his first homer. With two outs, Lou Whitaker doubled and Evans walked. Kirk Gibson then singled for one run and Alan Trammell singled home the other.

Chet Lemon hit his seventh homer with two outs in the fourth to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead.

Paciorek doubled and scored on a single by Schroeder in the fifth to cut the lead to 4-3.