Christian Yelich belted his majors-leading 30th homer and drove in three runs as the visiting Milwaukee Brewers recorded an 8-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday.
Keston Hiura and Lorenzo Cain each launched a solo homer, and Ben Gamel, Mike Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal drove in one run apiece for the Brewers, who have won three in a row overall and seven of 10 games against Cincinnati this season.
Milwaukee grabbed sole possession of first place in the National League Central, one game above the Chicago Cubs, who lost 18-5 at Pittsburgh on Monday.
Eugenio Suarez belted a pair of two-run homers and Jesse Winker also went deep for the Reds, who have lost six of their past eight on the heels of a season-high, six-game winning streak.
Suarez's second homer of the evening and team-leading 19th of the season trimmed Milwaukee's lead to 6-5 in the eighth inning, but Yelich restored his club's three-run cushion with a two-run blast down the left field line in the ninth.
Yelich went deep for the first time since he homered in three straight games from June 19-21, with the final two coming against Cincinnati.
The Brewers' five-run seventh inning made a winner out of Alex Claudio (2-2), who retired all three batters he faced in relief of starter Adrian Hauser.
Josh Hader surrendered Suarez's second homer in the eighth inning, and Jeremy Jeffress overcame Phillip Ervin's RBI single in the ninth to notch his first save of the season.
Milwaukee ignited its offense in the seventh, a half-inning after Winker and Suarez homered to stake Cincinnati to a 3-1 lead.
Cain trimmed the deficit by depositing a 1-1 curveball from Tyler Mahle just over the wall in right field for his fifth homer of the season and first since May 3.
Eric Thames had an infield single before Mahle was relieved by David Hernandez (2-4). Hiura then singled to center, and Gamel ripped an RBI double down the left field line to forge a tie at 3.
One out later, Tyler Saladino walked on five pitches to load the bases for Grandal, who did the same to force in a run and give Milwaukee a 4-3 lead.
Yelich's soft single found its way into right field to plate Gamel before Moustakas' sacrifice fly capped the scoring in the inning.
--Field Level Media
Milwaukee | Cincinnati | |
Adrian Houser | Player | Tyler Mahle |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 6.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 8 |
6 | Hits | 3 |
5.40 | ERA | 4.50 |
Milwaukee | Cincinnati | |
Christian Yelich | Player | Eugenio Suarez |
2 | Hits | 3 |
3 | RBI | 4 |
1 | HR | 2 |
5 | TB | 9 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Milwaukee | 9 | 3 | 20 | .257 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Cincinnati | 10 | 3 | 20 | .278 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 |