Christian Yelich’s seventh-inning RBI single proved to be the difference as the Milwaukee Brewers opened their first series in Boston since 2014 with a 4-1 win over the Red Sox on Friday night.
Willy Adames went 3-for-5 and drove in a run, and Yelich was 2-for-4 with a double and a run for Milwaukee, which has won three straight games and six of seven since the All-Star break.
The Brewers scored first in the sixth inning, pulled back ahead in the seventh and padded their lead with a two-run ninth.
Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff (9-3) was outstanding over 6 1/3 innings, striking out nine while allowing just one run on four hits and two walks. Josh Hader struck out three in the ninth inning for his 29th save.
Alex Verdugo drove home Christian Vazquez with the lone Red Sox run. Both were 2-for-4.
The Red Sox have lost three of their last four.
The Brewers broke a scoreless deadlock in the sixth as a Yelich double just inside third base and an Adames infield single set up Andrew McCutchen for an RBI grounder.
Boston’s Austin Davis fanned four over 2 1/3 scoreless innings as an opener. Brayan Bello (0-3) worked the next 4 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out four.
The Red Sox tied the score as Vazquez and Verdugo connected for back-to-back doubles in the sixth.
In the seventh, Tyrone Taylor hit a two-out triple into the center field triangle before Yelich lined Milwaukee’s go-ahead RBI single into center on the first pitch Ryan Brasier threw in relief of Bello.
The Red Sox squandered opportunities to even the game and then some, leaving two runners on base twice in the late innings. Brad Boxberger inherited two on with one out in the seventh, while Devin Williams worked around eighth-inning hits by Jarren Duran and Verdugo.
Taylor’s sacrifice fly in the ninth brought home an insurance run for Milwaukee. Victor Caratini’s one-out walk and a Kolten Wong double set up the RBI spot.
Adames grounded a two-out single to left to make it a three-run game.
–Field Level Media
