Dodgers rally behind Bobby Miller, Ryan Yarbrough to beat Brewers

Doing virtually all of its damage in the sixth inning, the Dodgers took care of business on Tuesday against Brewers, backing an outstanding outing by Bobby Miller in a 6-2 win in the series opener at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers’ rookie arm pitched the majority of his outing, trailing on the scoreboard. That is about the only negative thing one can say about Miller’s start on Tuesday.

After allowing the first two hitters to reach base, and struggling a bit with his command in the first, Miller went on to retire the last 18 batters he faced in the evening. One of those two who reached to open up the game came around to score, but that was it.

As the offense remained silent through the first four innings, Miller had to be flawless, or at least close to it, to keep his team in the game, and he did just that.

Miller picked up the win even though the Dodgers never actually led in the six innings while he was on the mound.

The right-hander certainly could’ve come back out there for the seventh. However, the offense broke through in a big way, making this a 6-1 game by the time the seventh rolled around. Furthermore, Miller had been sitting on the bench for a long while as the inning included multiple pitching changes for Milwaukee, and he’s starting again on Sunday against Miami, on four days rest.

With a fresh Ryan Yarbrough, Dave Roberts made the change, and got a three-inning save out of it.

Adrian Houser, the opposing starter, felt at home for much of this one but left with a bitter taste after a blowup sixth, in which he went from being the winning pitcher of record to the losing one.

Houser’s final line won’t read like anything special, as the Brewers’ pitcher went on the record for five and a third innings pitched, with four runs, three of them earned. However, that final line doesn’t tell the whole story of an arm without overwhelming stuff, who managed to keep this juggernaut offense at bay for much of the evening. Matching Miller pitch by pitch.

Houser certainly allowed plenty of hard contact to concede more than the two runs he allowed at the time he left the mound, as the latter two came in via the courtesy of a deep bench for the Dodgers. Key strikeouts against James Outman and Max Muncy had kept the offense at bay.

However, leading 2-1 after a J.D. Martínez RBI double, the Dodgers had runners at second and third, with David Peralta up in the sixth inning.

Craig Counsell made the call to the ‘pen, bringing in lefty Hoby Milner, and Dave Roberts countered by pinch-hitting with Kiké Hernandez.

After battling with many a foul ball, Hernández drove one through the infield and increased the lead to 4-1. The damage did not even stop there, with the bottom of the order tacking on a couple more, chasing Milner before he could finish the inning.

The same team that trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, now started off the final third of this game, leading it 6-1.

Tuesday particulars

Home run: Carlos Santana (16)

WP — Bobby Miller (7-2): 6 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts

LP — Adrian Houser (4-4): 5⅓ IP, 5 hits, 4 runs (3 earned), 6 strikeouts

SV - Ryan Yarbrough (1): 3 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 strikeout

Up next

It’s a battle of left-handers on Wednesday (7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA), with Clayton Kershaw starting for the Dodgers against Brewers southpaw Wade Miley.