MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jackson Chourio and William Contreras homered in the first inning and the Milwaukee Brewers stayed ahead the rest of the way to defeat the Texas Rangers 5-3 on Saturday night.
The MLB-leading Brewers won their fourth in a row and handed Texas its fourth straight loss. The Rangers remained two games behind AL West leader Houston, which lost 6-2 to the New York Mets earlier Saturday.
Brandon Nimmo hit a two-run homer and Cody Freeman
added a solo shot for Texas.
Rangers starter Cal Quantrill gave up homers to two of the first four batters he faced.
Chourio's 20th homer of the season came on a night when fans received cereal bowls bearing his name as they entered American Family Field. Quantrill was a strike away from getting out of the inning before Contreras connected on a 2-2 pitch and sent a 409-foot shot to left.
Milwaukee's Luis Lara had RBI singles in the second and seventh innings.
Texas trailed 5-1 before rallying to bring the tying run to the plate in the eighth.
Corey Seager drew a leadoff walk and came home one out later on Nimmo’s 426-foot homer off Chad Patrick. Ezequiel Duran greeted Antonio Senzatela with a single before Jake Burger and Danny Jansen grounded out.
Trevor Megill worked the ninth to earn his 25th save in 27 opportunities.
Quantrill (6-5) ended his six-inning stint by retiring 14 straight batters. He had a season-high eight strikeouts.
Milwaukee’s Shane Drohan (7-5) struck out six in five innings. The only run he allowed came on Freeman’s fifth-inning homer.
Freeman made a costly baserunning mistake in the third.
Nimmo’s two-out infield single could have loaded the bases, but Freeman tried scoring from second on the play and Brewers second baseman Brice Turang easily threw him out.
Kumar Rocker (5-10, 4.41 ERA) pitches for Texas and Dustin May (6-8, 4.58) starts for Milwaukee in the series finale Sunday.
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