Corbin Burnes tallies another 10-plus strikeout game in the victory
The Brewers offense in 2022 loves hitting home runs. They rank 19th in the MLB in hits (789), but fourth in home runs (136). One of their leaders in home runs, Rowdy Tellez, had himself a day. For the ninth time in his career and the fifth time as a Brewer, Tellez went yard twice to help the Brewers to a 10-4 win over the Twins.
The Brewers opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first, when Christian Yelich and Willy Adames reached with a walk and a single respectively. With two on, Tellez hit his 19th home run of the season into the Brewers bullpen, making it a 3-0 lead for the home team. That lead would be short-lived, however, as Jose Miranda led off the top of the second with a solo home run. Two batters later, Kyle Garlick got on with a double to right field. Nick Gordon and Gary Sanchez evened the score with back-to-back hits, making it 3-3.
After a long second inning, Corbin Burnes settled down. In fact, Burnes retired the next 13 batters in order after giving up the Gary Sanchez single, striking out eight of them. He did a great job getting the Twins to chase down in the zone with his cutter and curveball. In six innings of work, he struck out 11 while giving up three earned runs on five hits. All three earned runs and four of his five hits came in the second. His 11 strikeouts are his eighth outing with 10-plus strikeouts and his third in his last four games.
On offense, the Brewers looked to capitalize on Burnes’ sharpness. After a quiet third, the Crew loaded the bases in the fourth with three straight walks. After a Tyrone Taylor strikeout, Yelich put the Brewers ahead 4-3 with a walk of his own.
Adames followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 5-3. After the Adames RBI, Tellex blew the game open with his second home run of the evening. His fourth, fifth and sixth RBIs of the game would give the Brewers an 8-3 lead. In the fifth, last night’s hero Luis Urias join the party with a two-run home run of his own, making the score 10-3.
A Garlick home run off Jake McGee would be the only blemish for the bullpen in the blowout victory. McGee, Jandel Gustave and Peter Strzelecki combined for four strikeouts while giving up just two hits and one earned run over the last three innings. The 10-4 victory gives the Brewers a 5-1 homestand and their second series victory to start the second half of the season. At the time of this article getting published, the Brewers own a 3.5-game lead over the Cardinals for first in the NL Central. They take that lead onto the road, as they start a six-game road trip to Boston and Pittsburgh on Friday.