Milwaukee Brewers' Brice Turang slides safely past Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk during the sixth inning on June 10, 2024, in Milwaukee. Turang scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Willy Adames.Morry Gash/The Associated Press
Colin Rea allowed just three hits while working seven innings for his longest outing in eight years, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.
Jackson Chourio and Willy Adames went deep for the Brewers, who had gone without a homer in their last five games. Milwaukee’s last homer before Monday came a week ago when Rhys Hoskins connected against his former team in a 3-1 loss at Philadelphia.
Rea (5-2) threw 85 pitches, struck out four and allowed one run, on a third-inning homer by Alejandro Kirk. The last time Rea had gone seven innings was on June 7, 2016, when he was pitching for the San Diego Padres in a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
“We just established that heater down and away to the righties, and they were super aggressive,” Rea said. “They were making early contact. I think that helped. Defensively, we did a great job tonight just being in the right spots and making plays. I thought me and [catcher] William [Contreras] got on the same page early. He sensed their aggression, so we kind of used it to our advantage.”
Spencer Horwitz’s two-out single brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth before Brewers second baseman Brice Turang made an outstanding play to end the game. Turang went far to his right to field a grounder by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. up the middle and throw him out at first.
Trevor Megill worked the ninth for his 10th save in 11 opportunities.
Kirk opened the scoring by sending a 2-1 pitch from Rea over the left-field wall. The 405-foot drive was Kirk’s second homer of the year, and first since April 28.
But the Blue Jays couldn’t do much else against Rea.
“He has a lot of pitches,” Kirk said through a translator. “He was mixing the pitches very well. You’ve got to give that to him. ... He was locating.”
The Brewers tied it in the bottom of the third on Chourio’s homer to left-centre. Adames then put Milwaukee ahead in the fourth with a 417-foot drive, also to left-centre. Adames’ 10th homer of the season tied Hoskins for the team lead. He added a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Adames had entered Monday with just two hits and one RBI over his last seven games.
“It didn’t affect his defence or his leadership,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Adames’ slump. “It’s a testament to him. I’ve seen him hit that same home run 20 times since I’ve been here. Slider kind of down in the zone, right in that same spot.”
Toronto’s Jose Berrios (5-5) struck out four and allowed three runs, five hits and one walk in 5⅔ innings. That ended a streak of six straight games in which Toronto starting pitchers had allowed no more than two runs.
The game included an unusual moment in the fourth inning when Guerrero fouled off a pitch and lost his grip on the bat, which went flying and got stuck in the protective net above the Blue Jays’ dugout. After repeated attempts to get the bat down between innings failed, the Blue Jays managed to get it down before the start of the sixth inning.
Trainer’s room
Blue Jays: RHP Yariel Rodriguez (thoracic spine inflammation) will make a rehabilitation appearance with Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday. RHP Jordan Romano (elbow inflammation) threw from 60 feet on Sunday and from 75 feet on Monday.
Up next
LHP Yusei Kikuchi (3-5, 3.48 ERA) will pitch for the Blue Jays when the three-game series continues Tuesday. The Brewers haven’t announced their starting pitcher.