Brewers 5, Twins 4: Yelich's homer propels another road win

MINNEAPOLIS - The Milwaukee Brewers continue to make themselves at home on the road.

Sparked by Christian Yelich's home run in the eighth inning, the Brewers downed the Minnesota Twins, 5-4, at Target Field on Saturday night as they continued their recent run of impressive play on their longest trip of the season.

After clinching a winning road trip on Friday, they won their third consecutive series after downing the Twins for the second straight night. A sweep Sunday would send the Brewers back to Miller Park having won eight of 10.

An intriguing battle of rookie pitchers who are off to great starts never materialized as Freddy Peralta and fellow right-hander Fernando Romero weren't quite on their games in a chilly, windy environment.

BOX SCORE:Brewers 5, Twins 4

ANALYSIS:Josh Hader does it again as the Brewers keep cruising on the road

NOTES:Zach Davies passes the test in minor-league rehab start

HAUDRICOURT:Brewers don't mind picking lower in draft

MLB:Live scoreboard, box scores standings, statistics

Peralta and Romero both issued a pair of first-inning walks, with Romero's free pass coming back to bite him as Lorenzo Cain scored to put the Brewers in front, 1-0.

A leadoff walk and single in the second hurt Peralta, who surrendered a two-out, two-RBI double to .158-hitting Bobby Wilson as the Twins took their first lead of the series at 2-1.

Jesús Aguilar tied it up in the fourth with a leadoff homer off Romero, his third round-tripper in the last two games.

Peralta walked Logan Morrison to start the Twins' fourth, then with one out Jake Cave hammered the first pitch he saw out to right to give Minnesota a 4-2 lead. It was the first major-league hit for Cave.

Milwaukee came right back in the fifth. Manny Piña drove in Jonathan Villar with an RBI double two batters in, then eventually came in to score on a wild pitch by Romero.

Peralta's night ended after he walked Brian Dozier to start the Minnesota fifth. He allowed three hits, four runs (earned) and six walks to go along with five strikeouts in his four-inning, 82-pitch outing.

It was a far cry from his debut last Sunday at Coors Field, when he allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out 13 over 5 2/3 innings in beating the Colorado Rockies.

But with 18 strikeouts over his first two starts, Peralta broke the franchise record for most punchouts by a Brewers pitcher in his first two games. The previous mark was set in 1976 by Gary Beare, who fanned eight in each of his first two outings.

Dan Jennings and Jeremy Jeffress provided scoreless relief behind Peralta. Yelich's homer came with one out in the eighth, as he drove Addison Reed's offering to left-center to put he Brewers ahead.

Josh Hader took over for Jeffress with two outs in the seventh, struck out the side in the eighth and then did it again in the ninth to close out the game and improve his record to 2-0 on the season.

FIVE TAKEAWAYS

HIGH-WATER MARK: After beating the Twins on Saturday night, the Brewers improved to a season-high 10 games over .500 at 28-18. They haven't been 10 games over .500 since finishing last season at 86-76. Also, their record was second best in the National League behind the Atlanta Braves (26-17).

ROAD WORK: Milwaukee has now won four consecutive road series. The Brewers went 3-0 at Cincinnati, 3-1 at Colorado, 2-1 at Arizona coming into the Minnesota series. Their 18-9 road mark also was second best in the NL behind the Braves (17-8).

TOUGH GUY: Cain got on base the hard way in the fifth inning, when he was drilled in the left elbow and ribs by a 95-mph fastball thrown by Romero. Cain was in a great deal of pain and got a quick once-over by the team's athletic training staff as he made his way to first base, but ultimately remained in the game.

TAKE THAT: It appeared as though Travis Shaw was plunked in the right hand by a pitch thrown by Taylor Rogers in the sixth inning, but home-plate umpire Mark Ripperger ruled it a foul tip. Shaw lingered around the plate while he had his hand checked out, with manager Craig Counsell giving Ripperger a piece of his mind, but the call stood. Shaw ultimately got the last laugh, though, by singling to left field.

THE BEAT GOES ON: Jeremy Jeffress lowered his earned-run average to 0.36 after turning in yet another scoreless inning. He's now unscored upon in 23 of his 24 appearances on the season and each of his last 20 outings, and has tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings so far in the series.

RECORD

This year: 28-18

Last year: 25-21

COMING UP

Sunday: Brewers at Twins, 1:10 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Junior Guerra (3-3, 3.08) vs. Minnesota RHP Jake Odorizzi (3-2, 3.35). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.