Jimmy Nelson (Photo by Jason Wise/MLB/Getty Images.
The Milwaukee Brewers closed out their season opening six-game home stand with a 3-2 win over the Houston Astros at Miller Park on Sunday.
The Brewers captured their first series of the season and earned a 3-3 split of their home stand. Both the Giants and Astros are expected to contend for the playoffs in their respective divisions while the Brewers are in the early stages of a rebuild.
The Brewers continued to show patience at the plate, drawing 26 walks in the first six games of the season. They drew six of them off of Houston ace Dallas Kuechel, who is the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner. Four of the six came in the first inning.
Kuechel was staked to a 1-to-nothing lead after Jose Altuve sent Jimmy Nelson’s first pitch of the game out of the park for a home run. But the Brewers bounced back with two runs in the bottom of the first and never trailed again.
The Brewers scored their final run in the fourth when Domingo Santana drove in Yadiel Rivera with a double to right-center.
Jimmy Nelson surrendered the Altuve homer in the first and another to Preston Tucker in the fifth. He allowed just two runs on three hits in six-plus innings for the victory.
Jeremy Jeffress worked the ninth inning for his third save of the season.
Last season, the Brewers didn’t win their third game until April 23 and they didn’t win their first series until the first weekend in May.
The Brewers head to St. Louis and will face the Cardinals in the first of a 3-game, 3-city road trip.
AUDIO: Jimmy Nelson on the home stand :16
AUDIO: Craig Counsell says key is getting to pitchers early :22
AUDIO: Jeff Miller reports on the Brewers 3-2 win over the Astros :35