Vince Velasquez tossed six strong innings, J.T. Realmuto homered and the host Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 on Monday.

Didi Gregorius had two of the Phillies' six hits.

Velasquez (1-0), who retired his final 10 batters, allowed four hits and one run. He struck out six and walked two.

Hector Neris earned his sixth save in seven chances by recording five outs. On his 40th pitch of the night, Neris struck out Lorenzo Cain with the bases loaded to end the game.

Bryce Harper (left wrist), Rhys Hoskins (rest) and Andrew McCutchen (eyes) were all held out of the starting lineup. Hoskins did come on to pinch-hit in the seventh inning before staying in the game, and McCutchen entered as a defensive replacement in the eighth.

Cain homered and Christian Yelich added two hits for the Brewers.

Brewers starter Adrian Houser (2-3) pitched six innings and allowed four hits and four runs, two earned. He struck out two and walked one.

The Brewers received a major boost with the return of Yelich (back) and Cain (quad). Yelich hadn't played since April 11 while Cain hadn't competed since April 13. Both came off the injured list pregame.

Cain crushed a 446-foot home run in the first inning to give the Brewers a quick 1-0 lead.

The Phillies went ahead 2-1 in the first when Realmuto socked a two-run home run into the second deck in left.

Philadelphia added two runs in the second on an RBI triple by Roman Quinn and an RBI groundout by Velasquez for a 4-1 advantage.

Houser rebounded to retire 12 in a row before walking Gregorius with two outs in the sixth.

Philadelphia's Sam Coonrod struck out the side in the seventh.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Phillies had runners on first and second with two outs, but Angel Perdomo struck out Matt Joyce looking. Visibly frustrated, Joyce was soon ejected from the game by plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.

The Brewers drew consecutive walks against Connor Brogdon to open the eighth, and Yelich singled to load the bases. Travis Shaw followed with a sacrifice fly and Avisail Garcia added an RBI groundout to close with the gap to 4-3.

--Field Level Media