The home run ball has returned for the Milwaukee Brewers as they get back in the win column on Friday night against the Reds with a 5-4 victory in Cincinnati.
The Brewers jumped out to a lead in the 4th inning on a 3 run homer by Hunter Renfroe, his 11th of the season. They would add on in the 5th with a Willy Adames solo shot to make it a 4-0 Brewers lead.
However, the Reds would battle back against Brewers starter Eric Lauer. Albert Almora slugged a two run homer in the 5th to cut the Brewers lead in half. Then, in the 6th inning Brandon Drury and Tommy Pham hit back-to-back homers to tie the game at 4.
Then, Keston Hiura hit a solo home run off left-hander Ross Detwiler to give the Brewers a 5-4 lead. That was Hiura's first extra-base hit against a LHP all season, and he entered Friday hitting just .111/.200/.111 against southpaws.
With the one run lead, Craig Counsell went to Devin Williams for the 8th inning, and with Josh Hader away on paternity leave, Brad Boxberger to close down the 9th. Boxberger made things a little interesting in the 9th but ultimately closed out the 5-4 victory for the Crew with his first save of the season.
Lauer gets the win and improves to 6-2 on the year while Detwiler took the loss for the Reds and falls to 0-1.
Next up, the Brewers take on the Reds again on Saturday with Jason Alexander (0-0, 2.16 ERA) on the mound for Milwaukee against Graham Ashcraft (3-0, 2.22 ERA) of the Reds.