Carter, Braun Power Brewers to 6-4 Win Over Astros

The Milwaukee Brewers began a three-game tilt with the Houston Astros this evening, a club that now holds many connections to our beloved local nine. Former Brewers star Carlos Gomez made his first return to Miller Park since being traded with Mike Fiers (who isn't scheduled to pitch this series) and received a loud ovation. He had a typical Gomez game, roping a double to left center, making a terrific sliding catch to rob Aaron Hill of a hit, and getting caught in a run down between second and third that resulted your old 1-5-4-1-5-6-7 put out.

Despite Gomez's best efforts, though, the Brewers dominated this game from the beginning. Milwaukee got off to a fast start in the first inning thanks to a 427 foot moon shot by Scooter Gennett off of Scott Feldman. Three batters later, Chris Carter launched a two-run homer to right center to make it 3-0. The Brewers got on the board again in the second inning thanks to an RBI double by Domingo Santana, scoring Keon Broxton from second base to make it 4-0.

Things settled down from there as the rest of the game moved along at a decent clip. After a tough spring training, Brewers starter Chase Anderson enjoyed a nice regular season debut. He lasted five scoreless innings, allowing four hits and no walks to go along with five strikeouts. Anderson was sitting between 90-92 throughout the game, touching 93 a couple times. He showed off his excellent changeup as well as featuring a rather impressive curveball.

Curiously, Anderson was pulled after the fifth despite throwing just 85 pitches. It's been a part of an interesting trend in the season's early going. Here are the Brewers' starters pitch counts:

Peralta - 83 pitches
Nelson - 88 pitches
Jungmann - 80 pitches
Anderson - 85 pitches

Craig Counsell has spoken previously about the statistics that show how much difficulty a starter has during the third time through the order, so it will be interesting to watch this season to see if he continues to have early hooks for his starters.

Following Anderson's strong start, Carlos Torres came in and threw two scoreless innings with a strikeout. He was relieved by Tyler Thornburg, who threw a scoreless eighth with two K's. Thornburg's fastball has been up to 96 MPH in the season's early going now that he's dedicated himself solely to relief and is two years removed from his elbow injury. Scooter Gennett lead off the bottom of the eighth with a walk, which was followed up by Ryan Braun's first home run of the season to make it 6-0.

New Brewer lefty Sam Freeman made his team debut in the bottom of the ninth, allowing a double, single, and a three run home run to Tyler White. Freeman would get only one out before giving way to Jeremy Jeffress, who promptly allowed an RBI double to Preston Tucker to make it 6-4. After a walk, Jeffress induced Jose Altuve into a grounder to second that was ruled as an automatic double play when Colby Rasmus over-slid second base under the new rules. That ended the game and Jeffress earned his second save of the season.

The Brewers are now 2-2 on the season and have looked much improved since getting blown out on Opening Day. Their series with Houston will continue tomorrow night at 6:10 PM CST at Miller Park, with Wily Peralta facing off against Doug Fister.

BONUS COVERAGE:

Junior Guerra's season debut with the Sky Sox:

6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K#2016BrewersAce

— Kyle L. (@brewerfan28) April 9, 2016