Freddy Peralta battled through five scoreless innings, Christian Yelich drove in three runs, and the Milwaukee Brewers held on for a 5-3 victory over the visiting Athletics in Friday’s opener of a three-game series.

The A’s scored two runs in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate.

Max Muncy and Lawrence Butler drew consecutive one-out walks off Bryan Hudson, and Brent Rooker followed with an RBI double to make it 5-2. Trevor Megill relieved and allowed a sacrifice fly to major league home run leader Tyler Soderstrom. Megill then got Shea Langeliers on a dribbler in front of the plate for his second save.

Peralta (2-1), who had runners aboard in each inning before exiting with a 3-0 lead, allowed seven hits, struck out five and walked one. Of his 93 pitches, 55 were strikes.

Caleb Durbin, called up from Triple-A earlier in the day, beat out an infield single in his first major league at-bat to trigger a two-run third inning.

Durbin was erased on Brice Turang’s fielder’s choice grounder, but Jackson Chourio followed with an RBI double and Yelich added a run-scoring single to make it 2-0.

The Athletics put two aboard in the fourth on consecutive one-out singles, but Peralta escaped with an inning-ending double play.

Milwaukee added a run in the fifth to make it 3-0. Turang reached on an infield single with two outs, and a walk to Chourio ended starter J.T. Ginn’s night. Jacob Lopez, called up earlier in the day from Triple-A, relieved and Yelich punched an RBI single to right.

The A’s got on the board in the sixth against Nick Mears, who had retired all 14 previous batters he faced in his first five outings. JJ Bleday walked to open the inning and came around on a wild pitch, infield single, and a fielder’s choice grounder.

The Brewers scored twice in the seventh on Yelich’s RBI groundout and a run-scoring single by William Contreras, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Ginn (1-1) allowed three runs on four hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out seven.

–Field Level Media