PHOENIX _ In what already was a troublesome year for the Milwaukee Brewers' relief corps, this was their worst day.
And very tough to watch.
Allowing five runs in both the seventh and eighth innings, the Brewers' incendiary bullpens turned what had been a pitching duel into an absolute rout as the Arizona Diamondbacks pulled away to an 11-1 victory Sunday afternoon at Chase Field.
The game then got away from the Brewers when relievers Carlos Torres and Neftali Feliz were tagged for three homers and five runs in the seventh. Torres has allowed 16 hits in his last 6 1/3 innings, including four homers, and has a 14.22 ERA over that span. Feliz, who retired none of the four hitters he faced, has a 5.88 ERA with seven homers allowed in 26 innings.
But the carnage did not end there. Wily Peralta and Rob Scahill combined to allow five more runs in the eighth, including a grand slam by Paul Goldschmidt on the first pitch allowed by Scahill.
For the first six innings, Arizona lefty Robbie Ray and Brewers righty Chase Anderson had things mostly their way. Ray did not allow a run over 6 2/3 innings, allowing three hits while striking out 12. In two starts against the Brewers this season, he blanked them for 13 2/3 innings with 21 strikeouts.
The only run allowed by Anderson during his six innings of work came in the first inning. He yielded only four hits while logging eight strikeouts.
Anderson entered the game with a string of three scoreless starts covering 21 2/3 innings, and it quickly came to an end. With one down in the bottom of the first inning, David Peralta singled to center and raced to third when Goldschmidt laced a double into the left-field corner.
Jake Lamb, the major-league RBI leader, hit a shot up the middle that Anderson deflected to shortstop Orlando Arcia, who threw to first for the out. But Peralta came home on the play, snapping Anderson's streak.
Ray issued walks to Arcia and Lewis Brinson, making his major-league debut, in the third and the pair pulled off a double steal with two down, but Domingo Santana went down swinging on a nasty 3-2 curveball.
The Brewers' best chance to score off Ray came in the fifth inning after Arcia led off with a double into the left-field corner. Anderson, who hadn't executed a sacrifice bunt this season, got one down, putting a runner on third with one out.
Ray rose to that challenge, striking out Brinson on a 1-2 curveball and blowing Eric Thames away with a fastball to keep it a 1-0 game.
The Diamondbacks tried to give the Brewers a helping hand in the seventh by issuing three consecutive walks with two down, the first two by Ray and another by reliever J.J. Hoover. But lefty Jorge De La Rosa came on to Eric Thames, who struck out swinging for the third time.
