Yankees 4, Brewers 5: Eighth inning mistakes cost Yankees

The Yankees fell behind three times in this game. The first time they came back and took the lead. The second time they tied the game. A pair of mistakes from Carlos Beltran and Alfredo Aceves in the eighth put them in a hole for a third time. But there would be no third comeback. The Brewers took a 5-4 lead and wouldn't let the Yankees back in the game again.

The Brewers didn't take very long to get on the board. Carlos Gomez led off the game for Milwaukee with a monster home run off CC Sabathia. The next three outs were relatively uneventful, but the Yankees now found themselves in an early hole.

In the top of the third, Brendan Ryan led off the inning with a single. However, because NL, CC then came up and grounded into a double play. Jacoby Ellsbury came up next. On the sixth pitch of that at bat, Ellsbury reached on catcher's interference after Ellsbury's bat made contact with Jonathan Lucroy's glove. That kept the inning alive and allowed the Yankees to take a lead. Brett Gardner then came up and laced a shot down the right field line. Ellsbury scored all the way from first and Gardner made it all the way to third with a triple. Beltran then singled to score Gardner and give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

However, the Brewers took the lead right back in the bottom half of the inning. After the first two batters were retired in order, the inning was kept alive when Ryan made an error on what would've been the third out. That brought Lucroy to the plate. Lucroy made up for his earlier error by hitting a two-run home run to give the Brewers the lead again. Aramis Ramirez followed that up with another home run, extending the Brewers' lead to 4-2. Two more Brewers reached on hits, but the Yankees escaped the winning with no further damage.

After a quiet next two innings, the Yankees got a run back in the sixth when Mark Teixeira led off with a home run. That cut the Brewers' lead to just one run.

CC came back out for the bottom of the sixth. After getting the first out, Sabathia allowed a walk and two singles to load the bases. The second single would chase CC from the game. Sabathia was better than in his last outing, but still wasn't good. He went 5.1 innings allowing just one earned run (the other three were unearned due to Ryan's error) on eight hits and four walks. Dellin Betances came in and cleaned up CC's mess, striking out two hitters and keeping the score at 4-3.

Thanks to Dellin escaping that jam, the Yankees were able to tie the game in the top of the seventh. Pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson led off the inning with a walk. That was followed by another pinch-hitter, Ichiro Suzuki, who singled. After Ellsbury flied out, another pinch-hitter came to the plate. It was Alfonso Soriano, who singled to score Johnson and tie the game at four.

However, the Brewers would take the lead right back in the bottom of the seventh. Alfredo Aceves was brought in to pitch for the Yankees. With one out, Beltran misplayed a fly ball to right, allowing it to go over his head and Lucroy to get a double. Aceves then got Jeff Bianchi for the second out. Rickie Weeks came up next, and during the at bat, Aceves was called for a balk. That moved Lucroy to third, which would be huge as Weeks singled through the left side of the infield. That allowed Lucroy to score, making it 5-4 Brewers. Two huge mistakes had given the Brewers the lead right back.

After the Yankees couldn't get anything going in the top of the eighth, Aceves pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth. Francisco Rodriguez then came in to try and close out the game for the Brewers. Brian Roberts and Johnson both hit fly balls deep to right, but both died on the warning track for outs. An Ichiro fly out would end the game and give the Brewers a 5-4 win.

The series finale from Milwaukee will be tomorrow at 2:10 eastern. David Phelps will go for the Yankees and Matt Garza gets the start for the Brewers.

Box score.