Sanchez homers to help Brewers take series against Royals

Gary Sanchez hit a two-run home run and William Contreras had two hits and two RBI in the visiting Milwaukee Brewers’ 8-5 series-clinching win Sunday against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Brewers starting pitcher Kyle Harrison (1-0) picked up the win as he scattered three hits, gave up two runs, walked two and struck out six. Kris Bubic (1-1) took the loss for the Royals as he surrendered four hits, four runs, three walks and recorded eight strikeouts.

Trevor Megill picked up his third save of the season. Contreras was 2-for-3 with a run, two RBI and two walks for Milwaukee.

Maikel Garcia was 2-for-5 with a run, a two-run home run and three RBI and Vinnie Pasquantino was 2-for-5 with two RBI for the Royals.

In the first inning, Contreras coaxed a two-out walk. Cleanup hitter, Christian Yelich lined a full-count fastball down the left field line for an RBI triple as the Brewers took a 1-0 lead.

One hitter later, Sanchez also worked the count full before launching a high fastball to straightaway left field for a two-run homer as Milwaukee extended its lead to 3-0. All three of the Brewers’ runs came with two outs.

The Royals cut the Brewers’ lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the third when Garcia hit a two-run home run into deep left field.

Later that inning, Milwaukee right fielder Luis Matos scooped up Vinnie Pasquantino’s single and fired off a one-hop throw to Contreras whose swipe tag caught a sliding Bobby Witt Jr. on the arm, preserving the one-run lead.

In the top of the fourth, the Brewers again used a two-out rally to push their lead to 4-2. Brandon Lockridge walked and came all the way around from first base to score with a head-first slide on a Perkins double to left field.

Milwaukee scored two runs in the top of the seventh as Contreras’ single up the middle scored Brice Turang and Luis Rengifo for a 6-2 lead.

Garcia’s RBI single and Pasquantino’s two-RBI single in the bottom of the seventh cut the Brewers’ lead to 6-5.

But Jake Bauers’ RBI double and Lockridge’s bloop RBI single pushed Milwaukee’s lead to 8-5 in the top of the ninth.