Christian Yelich homered in his first and his last at bat as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-7 at PNC Park in game one of a three game series to wrap up what’s been a tough road trip.
The win snapped a four game slide for the Crew which was swept out of Wrigley Field by the Cubs over the weekend.
Yelich went four for five and his two home runs give him a major league leading 39 on the season. His second carried out of the stadium and splashed into the Allegheny river.
Mike Moustakas also hit a long home run after getting robbed of another by a leaping catch from Brian Reynolds.
Trent Grisham drove in three runs and Orlando Arcia contributed three hits to make Jordan Lyles a winner in his start against his former team. Lyels gave just one run on two hits over five innings for his 7th victory of the year.
A four run fourth built Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0 but the Pirates kept battling back. Leading 8-3 in the 8th, Freddy Peralta gave up a bases clearing double to Kevin Newman bringing the Pirates back within three. That’s when Yelich launched his second homer of the night in the top of the ninth.
Josh Hader gave up a run in the bottom half but finished it off for the save.
The Brewers (58-56) remain four games behind the Cubs in the NL Central as Chicago defeated Oakland 6-5. They are now right behind St. Louis for second in the division as the Cardinals fell to the Dodgers 8-0 managing only two hits.
Chase Anderson will take the mound in game two Tuesday night against Steven Brault. Pre-game coverage begins at 5;30 PM on WTAQ.
Zach Davies was placed on the injured list Monday because of back spasms. The Brewers don’t believe it will be a long term issue but he becomes the third Brewers starter on the IL joining Brandon Woodruff and Jhoulys Chacin.
