Jackson Chourio stroked a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning, leading the visiting Milwaukee Brewers past the Miami Marlins 6-5 on Friday night in the opener of a three-game set.
No. 8 hitter Caleb Durbin had a strong game for the Brewers, going 2-for-3 with two steals, two runs, one RBI and one walk.
Aaron Ashby (1-0) earned the win with 2 1/3 perfect innings in relief. Relievers Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill (19th save) each pitched an inning of scoreless ball as Milwaukee snapped a two-game skid.
Otto Lopez homered and drove in three runs to lead Miami, which has lost two out of three following an eight-game winning streak.
Neither starting pitcher earned a decision.
Milwaukee’s Quinn Priester allowed seven hits, two walks and five runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 innings.
Miami’s Sandy Alcantara gave up five hits, one walk and five runs in six innings.
In the first inning, Miami went first to third on singles by Xavier Edwards and Jesus Sanchez. Lopez’s groundout gave the Marlins a 1-0 advantage.
Milwaukee took a 2-1 lead in the third on a rally set up by Durbin’s single and Joey Ortiz’s walk. Both runners advanced on a balk, and the Brewers cashed in on Sal Frelick’s sacrifice fly and William Contreras’ two-out, full-count, line-drive RBI double into the left-center gap.
Miami scored an unearned run in the bottom of the third, tying the score at 2-2.
With Edwards at first, Sanchez hit a dribbler that Priester fielded but threw over the head of first baseman Jake Bauers. Gold Glove second baseman Brice Turang backed up the play, but he threw wildly to third for a second error, allowing Edwards to score.
Milwaukee grabbed a 5-2 lead in the fourth on Durbin’s RBI bloop single and Ortiz’s two-run single that bounced off Alcantara’s right leg before ending up in right field.
Miami cut its deficit to 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth on Connor Norby’s 409-foot, opposite-field blast to right.
The Marlins tied the score at 5-5 in the fifth as Sanchez tripled on a grounder down the first-base line, then Lopez followed with a two-run homer to left-center off Priester.
In the eighth, former Marlins star Christian Yelich singled off reliever Cade Gibson (2-4) and scored from first when Chourio grounded his double down the third-base line.
Milwaukee’s bullpen did the rest.
–Field Level Media
