Corbin Burnes tossed six scoreless innings and Owen Miller had his first homer for his home-state team to pace the Milwaukee Brewers to a 5-1 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals on Friday night in the opener of the three-game series.

Burnes (4-2) allowed two singles, struck out seven and walked four. He retired 10 of the final 11 he faced in a 104-pitch outing.

Miller, who played at nearby Ozaukee High School, about 35 miles from American Family Field, led off the third inning against Max Castillo with his first homer as a Brewer to make it 2-0. Miller, who spent his first two seasons with Cleveland, finished a triple shy of the cycle.

Willy Adames initiated an unearned run in the first to put Milwaukee up 1-0. After fill-in starter Josh Taylor (0-1) fanned the first two batters, Adames walked, stole second, and continued to third when the throw from catcher Freddy Fermin sailed into center field. Christian Yelich followed with an RBI single.

Milwaukee made it 3-0 in the fourth when Brian Anderson singled, advanced on a groundout and scored on Tyrone Taylor’s single to center.

Fermin got the Royals on the board in the seventh with his third homer, a two-out solo shot to left off Joel Payamps. Kansas City has homered in a season-high 11 consecutive games.

The Brewers answered with two runs in the bottom half on RBI singles by Yelich and Anderson.

Peter Strzelecki and Elvis Peguero each tossed a perfect inning to finish the three-hitter for the Brewers.

Josh Taylor made his first start of the season after nine relief appearances. It was only the second career start in 131 games for Taylor, who allowed an unearned run in a 25-pitch first inning. Castillo came on in the second and covered 4 1/3 innings as the Royals opted for a bullpen game.

–Field Level Media