Field Level Media
Mar 30, 2019
Christian Yelich set a franchise record by homering for the third consecutive game to open the season, and the Milwaukee Brewers held on for a 4-2 win over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.
Travis Shaw and Mike Moustakas also homered for Milwaukee, which has clubbed eight home runs in its first three contests. Yelich, the reigning National League Most Valuable Player, has three homers in his first 10 at-bats.
Kolten Wong went 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI to lead St. Louis at the plate. Paul Goldschmidt had an RBI single, and Marcell Ozuna finished 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff (1-0) limited the Cardinals to two runs on six hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out five before leaving at the 100-pitch mark (64 strikes).
Meanwhile, Cardinals right-hander Dakota Hudson (0-1) drew the loss in his first career start. He surrendered four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and fanned six.
Junior Guerra, Alex Claudio, Alex Wilson and Josh Hader combined to pitch four innings of scoreless, one-hit relief for Milwaukee. Hader struck out the side on nine pitches in the ninth for his second save.
Milwaukee opened the scoring in the first. Yelich hit a low strike over the wall in left-center field to make team history. He is one game from matching the big-league record of homering in the first four games, which five players have done.
The Cardinals evened the score at 1 in the third on Goldschmidt's RBI single. He drove in Wong from third base, giving the former Arizona Diamondbacks slugger a half-dozen RBIs in his first three games with St. Louis.
The Brewers turned to the long ball once again to pull ahead 4-1 in the bottom half of the third.
Shaw connected for a 410-foot blast over the center field wall to mark his first home run of the season. Yasmani Grandal reached on a Goldschmidt error in the next at-bat, and Moustakas ripped a 415-foot, two-run shot for his second of the year.
In the fourth, the Cardinals cut the deficit to 4-2. Wong's two-out double to left field scored Ozuna from third.
--Field Level Media