Victor Caratini's two-run single in the 11th inning sends Brewers home a winner against Dodgers

On a Tuesday night dominated by home runs, it was small ball that ultimately made the difference for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Hunter Renfroe opened the 11th inning by bunting for a single, then three batters later Victor Caratini's single plated the tying and winning runs to cap a hard-fought, 5-4 comeback over the Los Angeles Dodgers at American Family Field.

The walk-off victory was the Brewers' seventh, and the extra-inning game their fifth in their last 11.

"We’ve played some really long games the last few weeks," said Christian Yelich, whose fifth-inning homer was an early highlight.

"I think the Cardinals series was the only time we had conventional games. It’s nice for us to keep battling, hang in there and find a way to get it done. It wasn’t pretty the whole night, but we were able to do just enough to come out with a win."

The Brewers had a shot at walking off the Dodgers in the 10th as well when, with two on and two outs in the 10th, Andrew McCutchen lined a shot to the gap in left-center off Alex Vesia.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 5, Dodgers 4 (11 innings)

But Chris Taylor got a good jump on the ball, and with both a leap and a dive he was able to glove it, leaving McCutchen stunned as he pulled up at first base. He made a similar catch in left to rob Yelich in Game 7 of the NLCS in 2018.

"That was a flashback for me, for sure," said manager Craig Counsell.

"I definitely thought about it," said Yelich. "This guy...come on."

A sacrifice fly, walk and then one-out RBI single by Justin Turner off Brent Suter (4-3) pushed the go-ahead run across for Los Angeles in the 11th. Suter was the fifth Milwaukee reliever to see action in the game, as he followed Hoby Milner's impressive 10th.

With McCutchen on second to open the bottom of the frame, Renfroe greeted Craig Kimbrel with a picture-perfect bunt down the third-base line that put runners on the corners.

The bunt, according to Counsell, was Renfroe's call.

"That’s Hunter just having a feel against the pitcher," Counsell said. "He’s a good bunter – he's showed that – and he laid down a great bunt. Then, it was just great baserunning feel.

"It’s a risk, but it’s a risk based on what he sees and the only way to score is to take the risk."

Renfroe laid down a successful sacrifice bunt in the ninth inning at Pittsburgh on Aug. 4, a game Milwaukee went on to lose in 10 innings.

That one was the first of his career. Considering Renfroe's main job is hitting homers, his ability to maneuver the bat so deftly is certainly impressive.

"I know my college coach is going to look at this, laugh at this and be proud," Renfroe said. "I did a lot of bunting in college and I still have really good hand-eye coordination at bunting.

"It’s one of those things I don’t do very often because I think I can do a pretty good job hitting the ball but tonight, I know we don’t have a whole lot of hits; we needed one run to tie the ball game up and give it back to our bullpen.

"I was trying to do the best I could with what the game gave me."

After Kolten Wong struck out, Luis Urías walked to load the bases. Caratini fell behind in the count, 1-2, before blooping a soft single to right that scored McCutchen with Renfroe right on his tail to cap the victory.

The walkoff hit was Caratini's second of the season, and the fourth of his career.

"Probably gambling a little bit," Renfroe said of his aggressive baserunning on the hit.

"He hit it, I got a good read on it. I knew where the second baseman was. I knew he wasn’t playing back so he wasn’t going to catch it and obviously Mookie’s really good out there but I had a feeling and saw it go down and thought ‘i don’t think he’s gonna catch it.’

"If he did, oh well. I was playing aggressive baseball. I was going to end the game one way or another."

The St. Louis Cardinals won in walk-off fashion earlier in the evening when Dinelson Lamet, of all people, loaded the bases in the ninth and then hit a batter to drive in the winning run, so Milwaukee remains two games off the pace in the Central Division standings.

The Brewers are also one game back in the wild-card race.

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Brandon Woodruff battled through a 27-pitch first inning, working around a Trea Turner single and Freddie Freeman double to keep the Dodgers off the board, before recovering to retire 11 of the next 13 hitters he faced.

In the meantime, a two-run homer by Willy Adames off Ryan Pepiot two batters in staked him to the quick lead.

Topping out at 99 mph with his fastball, Woodruff rolled into the fifth before solo homers by Joey Gallo and Mookie Betts in the span of three batters quickly tied the game at 2-2.

Woodruff also narrowly missed surrendering three round-trippers in the same inning when Will Smith's drive to left-center with Freeman on base settled into the glove of Jonathan Davis to retire Los Angeles.

Milwaukee's offense, meanwhile, continued getting on base against Pepiot but failed to put any real pressure on him until Yelich's homer with one out in the fifth – a shot that left the bat at 112.4 mph and traveled 451 feet.

The homer also snapped an 0-for-26 slump for Yelich and the second-longest homerless streak of Yelich's career.

"It felt good to have something positive (happen) for once," he said. "It’s been awhile since I’ve done that. It was a good one, so it felt nice."

Pepiot went on to issue two-out walks to Rowdy Tellez and McCutchen, but Reyes Moronta stranded both by getting Renfroe to fly out.

The long half-inning and 93 pitches thrown spelled the end of Woodruff's outing. He allowed five hits, the two runs and two walks while striking out eight.

He also allowed two homers in a game for the fourth time this season and second straight start.

"I thought Woody had really good stuff tonight," said Counsell. "I thought his stuff was plus-plus. He pitched well, but they gave him some tough at-bats in the first inning and just fouled off a bunch of pitches.

"He threw some great pitches to Betts to lead off the game but he just kept getting foul balls. We got a zero in that inning, and that was probably the most important thing."

Brad Boxberger retired the side in order in the sixth in his first action since Aug. 10. Then after Moronta matched Boxberger, Matt Bush allowed a one-out homer to Taylor in the seventh that drew the Dodgers even at 3-3.

Taylor Rogers threw a scoreless eighth and Devin Williams followed suit with one in the ninth.

"Hoby did a heck of a job," said Counsell. "He had the really tough inning with three righties right off the bat in Taylor, Betts and Turner, but he did a heck of a job. Brent did a good job, too. Tough inning but he kept making pitches.

"After the base hit to Turner, he kept making pitches and I thought that was really important because it’s one run so you’re still in a good spot because you have a man on second (to start the inning). He kept it at one there.

"Six guys doing work. Some really good stuff."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Victor Caratini's two-run single in 11th lifts Brewers over Dodgers