Brice Turang and Christian Yelich homered and Jose Quintana allowed one run over six innings to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to their 10th consecutive victory, 7-1, over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday in the opener of a three-game series.
The N.L. Central-leading Brewers improved to 74-44, best in the majors, and moved 6 1/2 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs, who were idle Monday.
Quintana (10-4) allowed three hits, striking out three and walking one. Grant Anderson followed with two scoreless inning and Shelby Miller tossed a perfect ninth.
Turang jump-started the Brewers with a leadoff homer in the first and Yelich ignited a four-run third inning with his 22nd homer.
Andrew Heaney (5-10) allowed six runs, five earned, on nine hits in four innings.
Milwaukee gained control with a four-run third, started by Yelich’s solo homer to snap a 1-all tie. Andrew Vaughn singled and was sacrificed to second. Sal Frelick and Brandon Lockridge followed with RBI singles. Lockridge came around to score on a Joey Ortiz single and subsequent throwing error by catcher Joey Bart as Ortiz stole second.
The Brewers added their sixth run in the fourth when Isaac Collins doubled, took third on William Contreras’ single and came home on Andrew Vaughn’s sacrifice bunt.
Collins, Contreras and Yelich all contributed two hits each in the 11-hit attack.
Turang opened the first inning with his 11th homer to put the Brewers up 1-0, sending a 3-1 pitch from Heaney 406 feet to center. The Brewers loaded the bases with two outs on a single, walk and hit batter, but Andrew Heaney got Frelick on a foul pop to first.
Bart brought the Pirates even in the third with his second homer, an opposite-field drive down the right-field line.
–Field Level Media
