Christian Yelich belted a three-run home run and a solo shot to highlight the Milwaukee Brewers’ 6-2 victory over the host Philadelphia Phillies in the series opener on Friday.
William Contreras contributed three hits and an RBI as Milwaukee won its fifth straight game. Yelich finished with three hits and Jackson Chourio had two hits and scored twice for the Brewers, who used a tag-team pitching effort to cover the contest.
DL Hall pitched three hitless innings for Milwaukee before giving way to Quinn Priester (2-2), who allowed two runs and four hits over the final six frames. Priester didn’t walk or strike out a batter.
Nick Castellanos homered for Philadelphia, which has lost two straight following a stretch of 11 wins in 12 games. Kyle Schwarber accounted for half of the Phillies’ hits with two doubles.
Milwaukee jumped in front 2-0 in the first inning against Philadelphia starter Taijuan Walker (2-4). Brice Turang doubled and Chourio singled to open the contest. One out later, Contreras delivered a run-scoring groundout, and Sal Frelick added an RBI single.
After the Phillies went hitless against Hall, Trea Turner led off the fourth with a single against Priester and scored on Schwarber’s double to center.
However, the hosts’ momentum did not last long. Turang and Chourio again reached base against Walker before Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson summoned Tanner Banks out of the bullpen. Banks’ first pitch was a sweeper to Yelich, who slammed it the opposite way and over the left-field wall to make it 5-1.
Max Lazar kept Milwaukee quiet in the sixth and seventh innings, giving the Phillies a chance to creep closer on Castellanos’ homer off Priester to lead off the bottom of the seventh.
Yelich capped the scoring with a blast against Carlos Hernandez in the ninth, giving him his second multi-homer game in nine days.
Walker was charged with four runs and seven hits in four-plus innings. He struck out six and walked one.
–Field Level Media
