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 Back home after a 10-day, three-city swing, the Brewers rode home
runs from Chris Carter, Aaron Hill and Domingo Santana to a 10-5
victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night at Miller Park.
Milwaukee's 10 runs represented a season-high as did the Brewers' 13
hits. Ryan Braun had two of them, giving him nine in his last five
games. Braun also walked twice, scored twice and drove in his 11th
RBI of the season.
In all, six Brewers finished with two hits on the day. Carter drove
in three with an RBI double in the fourth then helped break the game
open with a two-run homer in the seventh, his fourth of the season.
Hill came into the game struggling at the plate, but snapped out of
the slump with two hits including his first home run of the season,
a solo shot in the sixth that broke a 4-4 tie, while Santana added
an exclamation point to his day with a solo home run in the eighth.
 The late show of power helped take the load off Jimmy Nelson, who
improved to 3-1 on the year after holding the Twins to four runs on
10 hits and a walk while striking out six in 6 2/3 innings of work.
"He was good again tonight," Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said.
"I thought his stuff was really good. ... know the line-score
doesn't look exactly like you want it with the ten hits. One walk
only tonight. I thought he pitched well tonight."
Minnesota got on the board in the second with an RBI double by
Eduardo Nunez, but the Brewers tied it up in the fourth on an RBI
double by Carter then made it a three-run game when Lucroy drove in
a pair with a double in the fifth.
Nelson, though, gave the lead up in the sixth on home runs to
Oswaldo Arcia and Eddie Rosario. He struck out Kurt Suzuki trend the
threat and Hill came through in the bottom of the inning, leading
off with a home run off Ryan Pressly (1-1).
"That was huge from Hilly there in the bottom of the sixth," Nelson
said. "He is a great guy to have on the team. I was happy to see him
get one. We kept the foot to gas there at the end and that is huge."
Nelson retired the first two Minnesota batters in the seventh then
gave way after allowing a double to Brian Dozier.
Counsell turned to lefty Carlos Torres, who loaded the bases by
walking Joe Mauer and Sano on eight straight pitches but escaped any
damage when he struck out Arcia on three pitches.
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"You are going to be careful with Mauer in that situation," Counsell
said. "But I thought he made some good pitches to Sano, some close
pitches to Sano... that weren't called strikes. He made great
pitches to Arcia."
The floodgates opened in the bottom of the inning.
Braun led off with a walk then scored when Lucroy singled and
advanced on an error by Arcia, making it 6-4. Lucroy scored on
Carters home run. Hill followed with his second hit of the day then
moved to second on his first stolen base of the year and scored when
Ramon Flores singled for his second hit of the day.
"We've really answered on some big innings from other teams in close
games," Counsell said.
Santana opened the eighth with his second homer of the year and
Minnesota added one more in the ninth on an RBI single by Joe Mauer
but it wasn't nearly enough for the Twins, who remain winless on the
season away from Target Field.
"The loss is frustrating because we had chances," Twins manager Paul
Molitor said. "You're battling to find a way to get even with a few
innings to play. Sloppiness always concerns a manager. When you
don't execute, you know errors are part of the game, but you like to
clean that up as best you can."
NOTES: The Brewers are batting .349 (30-for-86) over their last
eight games after posting a .163 average in their first seven. ...
Minnesota is still looking for its first road victory of the season.
The Twins have dropped their first seven games away from Target
Field, where they have gone 4-4 in 2016. Minnesota hasn't won a road
game since defeating the Indians on Oct. 1 of last season. ...
Milwaukee's 10 runs and 13 hits represented season-highs.
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