Jake Meyers and Jeremy Pena each homered before four relievers preserved Hunter Brown’s first win of the season as the Houston Astros topped the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 on Friday.
The Astros extended their winning streak to six games and earned their eighth victory in nine games. They did so with a pair of multi-run homers and a stout bullpen performance capped by closer Josh Hader, who retired the side in order in the ninth for his sixth save of the season.
Jake Bauers homered to right field — his fifth of the season — off Brown in the top of the second to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead. Meyers drilled his fourth home run with two outs in the bottom of the second, driving home Jon Singleton with a 379-foot blast that supplied the Astros a 2-1 lead.
Brown surrendered that one-run advantage in the fourth when he issued walks to Bauers and Sal Frelick before Joey Ortiz recorded his second extra-base hit in as many plate appearances. Ortiz drilled a three-run homer out to right field, smacking his fifth long ball of the season to give Milwaukee a 4-2 lead.
Brown (1-4) had just one win in his previous 14 appearances dating to last season. On Friday, he allowed four runs on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts over five innings.
Pena delivered the fifth-inning blast that enabled Brown to notch the victory. After singles by Victor Caratini and Jose Altuve, the shortstop hit a three-run shot into the left-field seats, his fifth homer of the year, to give the Astros a 5-4 lead.
Meyers and Pena went deep off Brewers starter Freddy Peralta (3-2), who surrendered five runs on eight hits and one walk with six strikeouts over five innings.
Houston relievers Tayler Scott, Rafael Montero, Bryan Abreu and Hader preserved the advantage. Scott and Montero worked around leadoff singles in the sixth and seventh, respectively, and Montero gave up another single before getting a called third strike on William Contreras to end the seventh.
Abreu yielded a pair of two-out baserunners in the eighth but closed that frame with a called third strike against Frelick.
–Field Level Media
