Yelich powers Brewers
Christian Yelich belted a grand slam for his first homer of the season and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1 on Monday night.
Yelich’s two-out slam capped a five-run rally off Pirates starter Zach Thompson (0-1) in the fourth inning. The 429-foot blast was Yelich’s fourth career grand slam.
It was an encouraging sign for the 2018 NL MVP, who has struggled the last two seasons after leading the league in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS during each of his first two years in Milwaukee.
Yelich batted .248 and homered nine times in 475 plate appearances last year after hitting .205 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Eric Lauer (1-0) gave up one run and five hits in six innings while striking out five and walking one. Pittsburgh got its only run in the fourth on rookie Diego Castillo’s first career homer, which came one pitch after Castillo swung at a slider from Lauer that hit him in the knee.
Milwaukee’s Jandel Gustave, Hoby Milner and José Ureña each pitched one inning of scoreless relief.
The game was tied 1-1 when Milwaukee’s Omar Narváez singled to center and Lorenzo Cain hit a deep fly that appeared to bounce off the glove of right fielder Cole Tucker for a double.
Kolten Wong’s sacrifice fly brought home Narváez with the go-ahead run. After Willy Adames walked, Yelich sent an 86 mph changeup into the second deck of the right-field stands.
Yelich finished 2-for-3 with a third-inning double and a walk.
The Brewers opened the scoring in the first when Wong hit a leadoff single, advanced to third on Adames’ single and came home on a wild pitch.
Thompson struck out five but allowed six runs, six hits and four walks in four innings.
Interleague
Cubs 4, Rays 2 — Rookie Seiya Suzuki extended his hitting streak to nine games, tying Akinori Iwamura for the longest by a Japaneseborn player at the start of a major league career, and Chicago beat Tampa Bay on a cold night.
Suzuki singled to left leading off the fourth inning, matching the mark that Iwamura set with the Rays in 2007 and tying Andy Pafko’s record for a Cubs player at the start of his career, set in 1943.
Suzuki was thrown out by left fielder Randy Arozarena trying to stretch his hit to a double, a call upheld in a video review.
Suzuki is batting .429 after a 2 for 3 night.
There were intermittent snow flurries before the game, and the temperature at gametime was 40 degrees with a 16 mph that caused a 34 windchill. Several Rays wore handwarmers.
Ian Happ’s RBI single in the eighth against Jeffrey Springs broke a 2-2 tie and drove in Suzuki, who was hit by a pitch from Jason Adam (0-1) leading off the inning.
Frank Schwindel homered to right in the eighth off Javy Guerra, who made his Tampa Bay debut.