Christian Yelich homered and Rhys Hoskins scored twice as Milwaukee held on for a 3-2 home-opener victory over the Minnesota Twins, giving the Brewers their first 4-0 start in six years.
It’s the fourth time in franchise history that Milwaukee has opened with four consecutive wins, including the 1987 team that started 13-0.
Elvis Peguero (2-0) got the win with two innings of relief. Abner Uribe pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save.
Milwaukee starter Jakob Junis, who pitched mostly in relief last season with San Francisco, allowed one run on three hits in four innings, striking out four and walking one.
Yelich opened the third inning with his second homer, sending a 3-2 pitch 423 feet to center to put the Brewers up 2-0. Later in the third, Milwaukee tacked on a run when Hoskins was hit by a pitch with two outs, Oliver Dunn walked and Brice Turang sliced an RBI double to left.
Twins starter Louie Varland (0-1) needed 89 pitches to get through four innings, allowing three runs on six hits, with four strikeouts and two walks.
Minnesota scored a run in the fourth when Alex Kirilloff singled to open the inning and came around on a single, fly out and sacrifice fly by Matt Wallner to make it 3-1.
The Twins pulled to within 3-2 with an unearned run in the seventh without a hit on two walks, an error and Christian Vazquez’s sacrifice fly.
Milwaukee loaded the bases with one out in the second on consecutive singles by Hoskins, Dunn and Turang. Rookie Jackson Chourio followed with an RBI single to right to make it 1-0.
Varland escaped further damage when Sal Frelick bounced into a force at home and William Contreras took a called third strike.
-Field Level Media
