Joey Wiemer's sacrifice fly in 9th lifts Brewers past Royals 4-3

MILWAUKEE — Rookie Joey Wiemer’s sacrifice fly with one out in the ninth inning gave the Milwaukee Brewers a 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.

Christian Yelich homered twice for Milwaukee, with the second tying it at 3 in the sixth with a shot off Josh Taylor, who relieved starter Zack Greinke to begin the inning.

Brian Anderson opened the ninth with a single off Carlos Hernandez (0-1), who came on in relief to start the inning. Owen Miller’s one-out double sent Anderson to third. Wiemer then sent an 0-1 pitch deep enough to center to easily score Anderson — and then got a Gatorade shower from his jubilant teammates to celebrate the win.

“I’m not sitting on a pitch in that situation," Wiemer said. "Just trying to get anything I can flick out in the outfield, do my job. Not trying to do too much there.”

Devin Williams (3-0) got the victory with a perfect ninth.

Salvador Perez opened the fifth with his eighth homer to put the Royals up 3-2, chasing starter Adrian Houser.

Houser, making his second start after four rehab starts at Triple-A, allowed three runs and eight hits as the Royals left six aboard through four innings, including three in scoring position.

“He was able to get out of it,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “The at-bats were good. Even when we got out in those situations, it wasn’t like just weak contact or whatever. We got into deeper counts and he made some pitches.”

Yelich tied it at 2 in the third with his fifth home run. Brice Turang led off with an infield single. And with two outs, Yelich sent a 2-0 pitch 427 feet to center.

Yelich is batting .333 (14-for-42) over his last 11 games with three homers, a double, 10 RBIs, three walks, three stolen bases and eight runs scored.

“I’m just making adjustments, trying to be consistent up there and string together really good, quality at-bats and see what happens,” Yelich said. “They haven’t all really been falling. You’ve just got to stick with it and just try and continue to put good at-bats together, good swings.”

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first when Bobby Witt Jr. doubled, advanced on an infield single and scored on M.J. Melendez’s sacrifice fly.

Kansas City made it 2-0 in the third on consecutive two-out doubles by Melendez and Nick Pratto.

Greinke ended his five-inning outing by getting Wiemer on a called third strike, becoming the fifth pitcher in major league history to strike out 1,000 different batters — joining Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens.

“I don’t ever think about it. I’ve heard about it a couple times, but it didn’t really cross my mind,” said Greinke, whose teammates were cheering from the dugout. “I still didn’t know anything was going on and then they were a little more excited than normal. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what happened.’”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: Perez returned after being scratched Friday with blurry vision.

SKIPPING LAUER

LHP Eric Lauer, who has lost his last three starts, will skip a turn, but will be available out of the bullpen, Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Saturday. Lauer lasted just 3 2/3 innings on Tuesday, giving up four runs — three earned — in a 6-2 loss to the Dodgers. Lauer has given up eight homers and walked 16 in 34 1/3 innings.

GREINKE’S ROAD DROUGHT

With the Royals bullpen giving up the lead, Greinke is winless in his last 21 road starts since a 4-1 victory on Aug. 13, 2021, at Anaheim when he was with Houston. Greinke was 0-11 with a 6.32 ERA in his previous 20 road starts.

UP NEXT

RHP Colin Rea (0-3, 4.94 ERA) starts for the Brewers in the series finale on Sunday, opposed by RHP Jordan Lyles (0-6, 6.20)

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