MILWAUKEE (AP) — Colin Rea allowed just three hits while working seven innings for his longest outing in eight years, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.
Jackson Chourio and Willy Adames went deep for the Brewers, who had gone without a homer in their last five games. Milwaukee’s last homer before Monday came a week ago when Rhys Hoskins went deep against his former team in a 3-1 loss at Philadelphia.
Rea (5-2) threw 85 pitches, struck out four and allowed one run, on a third-inning homer by catcher Alejandro Kirk. The last time Rea had gone seven innings was on June 7, 2016, when he was pitching for the San Diego Padres in a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Spencer Horwitz’s two-out single brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth before Brewers second baseman Brice Turang made an outstanding play to end the game. Turang went far to his right to field a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounder up the middle and throw him out at first.
Trevor Megill worked the ninth for his 10th save in 11 opportunities.
Kirk opened the scoring by sending a 2-1 pitch from Rea over the left-field wall. The 405-foot drive was Kirk’s second homer of the year, and first since April 28.
The Brewers tied it in the bottom of the third on Chourio’s homer to left-centre. Chourio’s homer was a solo shot rather than a two-run blast because José Berríos (5-5) picked Jake Bauers off first immediately beforehand.
Adames then put Milwaukee ahead with a 417-foot drive, also to left-centre. Adames’ 10th homer of the season tied Hoskins for the team lead. He had entered Monday with just two hits and one RBI over his last seven games.
Milwaukee extended the lead to 3-1 in the sixth. Brice Turang drew a leadoff walk, advanced to third on William Contreras’ single and scored on Adames’ sacrifice fly.
Berrios struck out four and allowed three runs, five hits and one walk in 5 2/3 innings. That ended a streak of six straight games in which Toronto starting pitchers had allowed no more than two runs.
The game included an unusual moment in the fourth inning when Guerrero fouled off a pitch and lost his grip on the bat, which went flying and got stuck in the protective net above the Blue Jays’ dugout. After repeated attempts to get the bat down between innings failed, the Blue Jays managed to get it down before the start of the sixth inning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Blue Jays: RHP Yariel Rodríguez (thoracic spine inflammation) will make a rehabilitation appearance with Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday. … RHP Jordan Romano (elbow inflammation) threw from 60 feet on Sunday and from 75 feet on Monday.
UP NEXT
LHP Yusei Kikuchi (3-5, 3.48 ERA) will pitch for the Blue Jays when the three-game series continues Tuesday. The Brewers haven’t announced their starting pitcher.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
