The Milwaukee Brewers ' power outage ended on Friday night.
Playing in cavernous Oakland Coliseum, they snapped a four-game homerless streak when Rhys Hoskins and Joey Ortiz went deep on consecutive pitches.
That sparked a five-run second inning, and the Brewers never looked back in bashing the Oakland A's, 11-3, to open their final interleague series of the season.
Hoskins belted a three-run shot to left and Ortiz went deep to center to provide some early breathing room for Aaron Civale, who scuffled early and lasted only four innings to match his shortest start for Milwaukee.
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Hoskins finished with four runs batted in and Gary Sánchez three while every Brewers starter collected at least one hit in a 14-hit attack. The 11 runs were most since Aug. 8, when they scored a season-high 16 to beat the Braves in Atlanta.
"I think we just came out ready to hit," Hoskins told Bally Sports Wisconsin after the game. "We haven’t been shut out too much this season, so it was nice to come out and punch first.
"We need to win a series here before we go back home, so a big win on the first day is a good start for that."
Putting some icing on the cake
Facing mop-up man Dany Jiménez in the ninth, Blake Perkins doubled, William Contreras singled and Willy Adames walked to load the bases for Sánchez. He, in turn, ripped a blast to straightaway center that JJ Bleday got a glove on but couldn't reel in.
That cleared the bases and left Sánchez with just the third triple of his career and first since 2021. Hoskins followed with a sacrifice fly to left to cap the scoring.
"We stayed on it and played a complete game," manager Pat Murphy told reporters afterward.
Bullpen takes the baton
Bryan Hudson (6-1) took over for Civale in the fifth and delivered two perfect innings. It was his 14th appearance of two or more innings this season; in such outings he's posted a 0.30 ERA.
"Two scoreless in the middle of the game when it’s still kind of close, those are big outs," said Hoskins.
Joel Payamps faced the minimum in the seventh and caught a lucky break when, after he threw the ball down the first-base line on a bunt and into the immense foul territory at Oakland Coliseum, Sal Frelick threw a strike to third to get Max Schuemann.
Oakland's bullpen matched Milwaukee's in terms of scoreless relief from the fifth through the eighth, even with the Brewers getting multiple baserunners on in both the seventh and the eighth.
Milwaukee extends its lead
A two-out bloop double to short center in the fourth by Frelick was followed by a ringing double off the wall in center by Jackson Chourio. Perkins, up next, sent a roller up the middle that second baseman Zack Gelof was able to glove but he lost the ball on the transfer and Chourio was able to scamper home to make it 7-1.
Contreras then walked, ending the night for A's starter JP Sears at 90 pitches. He was charged with five earned runs, equaling the total he'd allowed over his previous four starts (28 ⅔ innings).
"I think we just got him in the middle of the plate," Hoskins said of Sears. "He’s got a good fastball that he tries to throw above the zone and early on we did a good job of not chasing up there and found ourselves in some good counts."
Oakland responded by going single-single-walk-walk to start the bottom of the frame, marking the fourth time in the last three games the Brewers had forced in a run via a free pass.
Two batters later Lawrence Butler drove in another run with a grounder that made it 7-3, but Civale halted the damage there.
At 82 pitches at that point, Civale was pulled in favor of Hudson. Civale allowed four hits, the three runs and four walks with three strikeouts.
"It shows the wherewithal of him to get through four innings," Murphy said. "Especially the last two innings we got out of him...bobbing and weaving, that's what a great pitcher does. Even when you don't have your best stuff, you give your team a chance."
An eventful first couple innings
Things didn't begin well for Civale, who allowed a leadoff homer to Butler and needed 33 pitches in all to navigate the bottom of the first.
But the offense picked him up in a big way in the second, forcing Sears to throw 34 pitches. He also surrendered a five-spot to the Brewers, with Hoskins providing the big blast with a three-run homer to left following singles by Adames and Sánchez.
One pitch later, Ortiz sent a blast out to center as Milwaukee went back to back to snap a four-game homerless streak. Andruw Monasterio followed with a single then scored two batters later when Chourio singled to left and Miguel Andujar misplayed it.
The five-run inning was the largest for Milwaukee since Aug. 8, when it put up five in the fifth en route to a 16-7 victory at Atlanta.
The Brewers also batted around for the 19th time and the first time since that fifth inning in Atlanta.
Brewers time, TV, radio
The Brewers game starts at 8:40 p.m. Friday.
TV : Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620 and a state network.
Brewers lineup
- Jackson Chourio LF
- Blake Perkins CF
- William Contreras C
- Willy Adames SS
- Gary Sánchez DH
- Rhys Hoskins 1B
- Joey Ortiz 3B
- Andruw Monasterio 2B
- Sal Frelick RF
A's lineup
- Lawrence Butler LF
- Brent Rooker DH
- JJ Bleday CF
- Miguel Andujar LF
- Shea Langeliers C
- Seth Brown 1B
- Zack Gelof 2B
- Darell Hernaiz 3B
- Max Schuemann SS
Brewers schedule
Brewers at A's, 3:07 p.m. Saturday . Milwaukee RHP Colin Rea (11-4, 3.52) vs. Oakland RHP Joe Boyle (3-5, 6.21). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.
Brewers at A's, 3:07 p.m. Sunday . Milwaukee RHP Frankie Montas (6-8, 4.57) vs. Oakland RHP Joey Estes (5-6, 4.44). Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 11, A's 3: Offense gets back on track with big night in Oakland
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