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The Milwaukee Brewers and Oakland Athletics both understand the importance of hitting two home runs Saturday afternoon when the clubs meet in an interleague rematch.

The Brewers out-homered the hosts 2-1 and used their power to account for the first four runs in an 11-3 triumph over the A’s in the opener of a three-game series Friday night.

Rhys Hoskins and Joey Ortiz went deep in a five-run second inning that powered the win and gave Milwaukee a 27-6 record this season when hitting two or more homers.

“It was nice to come out and punch first,” said Hoskins, whose team had been shut out 3-0 at St. Louis on Thursday, its second defeat in a row. “We need to win a series here before we go back home, so a big win on the first day is a good start for that.”

The Athletics’ scheduled Saturday starter, right-hander Joe Boyle (3-5, 6.21 ERA), has been stingy about allowing home runs. He has served up just four in 12 career starts, including three in his nine outings this season.

He has never allowed more than one homer in a game, and hasn’t given up any in his past two starts leading into his first career matchup with the Brewers.

The 25-year-old is coming off the best effort of his career, when he threw six shutout innings in a 3-0 home win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.

Oakland’s lone homer in Friday defeat came on the second pitch of its first at-bat. Lawrence Butler did the damage.

Given 27 more outs, the A’s failed to hit another. They have won each of the past eight times they went deep twice.

The final score wouldn’t indicate it, but the A’s were one or two big swings from making the opener a much more competitive contest and perhaps even taking a lead into the second half of the game.

Up 1-0, they stranded the bases loaded against a struggling Aaron Civale in the first inning when Zack Gelof broke his bat on a medium-deep fly to left.

Three innings later, down 7-3, they saw a chance to get back in the game land in the glove of Milwaukee right fielder Sal Frelick on a bid for extra bases by the A’s leading home run hitter, Brent Rooker.

Once Milwaukee got the lead into the hands of its bullpen, the relievers did their job.

“Their bullpen’s pretty good. We saw that tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said of a group that threw five shutout innings. “It’s important to keep games close (against the Brewers). It’s important to get out to leads. Tonight we didn’t do that.”

One positive for Oakland is that the Brewers’ scheduled Saturday starter, right-hander Colin Rea (11-4, 3.42 ERA), has been susceptible to the long ball. He has allowed 20 home runs this season, yielding multiple homers in a game five times. He is winless in those starts.

That said, Rea has not allowed a run in any of his past three road starts, contributing 19 innings to shutout wins over the Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves. He also threw seven innings of shutout ball in his most recent start overall, on Sunday against the visiting Cleveland Guardians.

The 34-year-old has never faced the A’s.

–Field Level Media