Offense keeps rolling as Brewers defeat Red Sox 9-4

Box Score

The Brewers’ offense continued its explosive start to the second half, falling just shy of another double-digit scoring day in a 9-4 win over the Red Sox on Saturday.

After Christian Yelich led off the game with a double and advanced to third on a passed ball, Rowdy Tellez drove him in with a squibber down the third-base line.

That was the last of Milwaukee’s scoring that came on weak contact. In the second inning, Omar Narvaez golfed a Nick Pivetta curveball into the Red Sox bullpen for a solo home run, increasing the lead to 2-0. It was the struggling catcher’s first extra-base hit since his last homer on July 3, and it was just his fourth hit of the month.

In the top of the fifth, Hunter Renfroe got a hanging breaking ball from Pivetta that he liked and demolished it over the Green Monster. The two-run home run made it a 4-1 Brewers lead. Boston’s former right fielder has now left the yard in five of eight games since the All-Star break.

That was enough run support for Eric Lauer, who was not efficient but got the job done. The left-hander battled his control and got into many deep counts, but he allowed just one run in five innings. Lauer allowed four hits, walked three and struck out four.

The Brewers secured the win by tacking on insurance runs in each of the final three innings. Kolten Wong drove in Tellez with a sac fly in the seventh. After Boston rallied for three runs against Hoby Milner and Brad Boxberger in the bottom half of the frame, the Brewers added another run on a sac fly by Willy Adames.

Milwaukee pulled away for good with a big ninth inning. Luis Urias pulled a double down the line to drive in Wong and later scored on a wild pitch. Tyrone Taylor capped the three-run inning with a drive to center field, his 11th home run of the season.

The Brewers have won all three of their series coming out of the All-Star break, going 7-1. A win on Sunday would extend their winning streak to five games and represent their second consecutive sweep.

Aaron Ashby gets the ball for the Brewers. He’ll look to build on a strong start last time out that saw him fire seven innings of two-run ball while generating 45 called strikes plus whiffs, which ranks second in a single start by any pitcher in baseball this year. Rookie Josh Winckowski will start for the Red Sox.

The getaway contest starts at 12:35 p.m. CDT on Bally Sports Wisconsin.