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The Milwaukee Brewers managed to take a 4-2 win against the Houston Astros behind yet another strong start from Jordan Lyles.
Lyles held the dominant Astro offense to just six hits and two runs over his 6.1 innings. Since rejoining the Brewers in July, he’s only allowed more than one earned run in a start twice and more than two earnies once. He has pitched six or more innings in three of his seven starts.
As fantastic as he was, the game did start out a little glum. With the Crew going against former Brewer Zack Greinke, Lyles cracked first. In the top of the second inning, Abraham Toro hit a triple to center field with one out and then was immediately singled home by Josh Reddick.
The Brewers decided to show up against Greinke, who’s been as dominant as ever this season, especially with Houston. In the bottom of the third, Ryan Braun got the scoring going, driving in Trent Grisham to tie things up 1-1. Eric Thames followed Braun up and smacked a homer past the Toyota Tundra Territory, driving in three more and giving the Crew a 4-1 lead.
.@EricThames launched a rocket clear out of the park to give the Brewers a 4-1 lead! #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/wFL5HiSwBb
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) September 4, 2019
Lyles would only see one more big blemish after that. He cruised through to the top of the sixth, where he allowed a solo homer to Alex Bregman.
In the top of the seventh, Craig Counsell took Lyles out of the game and turned things over to his bullpen. Drew Pomeranz set down all five batters he faced, three on strikeouts. In the ninth, Josh Hader mowed down Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman. Yuli Gurriel batted it out for an eight-pitch at-bat, but Hader would come out on top with a final strikeout to end the game.
The Brewers still sit seven games out of the NL Central lead and will likely stay four games out of the Wild Card. They can put a dent in that lead, however, when the Chicago Cubs come to town Thursday. The four-game series starts with Chase Anderson (6-4, 4.58 ERA) going against Brewer killer Jose Quintana (12-8, 3.90 ERA). First pitch is at 6:10 p.m. and it is certainly the only sports game being played that day.