The Brewers upset the twins in extra innings, 6-5

The magic of the opening day was in full force for the Brewers in the home opener against the Minnesota Twins. Shed 5-2 with a ninth inning putout, the crew earned a spectacular 6-5 victory over Minnesota.

Redemption was the name of the game in this victory. Christian Yelich looked like his 2018-2019 self. Josh Hader’s fastball hit triple digits. Omar Narváez made up for some defensive mistakes with some attacking moments. Travis Shaw led in the races which sent the game into extra innings. Orlando Arcia led in the winning race in his first opening day bench appearance since 2016. Lorenzo Cain scored the winning race looking pretty smart in a ball mask in the gloves. And, of course, well-spaced fans returned to a familiar baseball stadium with a new name to fuel the victory.

To open the game, Luis Urías wasted no time at all making a highlight play during his hard-earned start from the shortstop. He started the competition with an incredible hold of scuba, snorkel and somersault to steal extra bases from Luis Arráez of the Twins and keep the runs off the board in the first.

Jorge Polanco was the second out of the first set at Woodruff’s out of the season. He sniffed at a 98 mph four seam fastball. Woodruff’s speed was pushing the ’90s into the early stages of the first innings, probably feeling the energy of 12,000 fans who, according to in-person accounts, looked like a capacity crowd.

The crew went 1-2-3 at the bottom of the first. Kolten Wong hit on a foul tip, Hiura pulled the ball out looking for a stroke for stroke from Kenta Maeda. Christian Yelich was suddenly robbed by a diver Jorge Polanco.

Woodruff looked sharp in the second inning, knocking out Byron Buxton and Mitch Garver before handing a single to Andrelton Simmons. Kolten Wong lined up for some smooth field play, but it was just a little too late on the pitch to get Simmons. The next hitter, Kenta Maeda, came out to Wong to finish the inning.

Avisaíl García got the first hit of the season to lead the second set:

The Brewers had a threat when Travis Shaw followed up with another single with no one, but Lorenzo Cain, Omar Narváez and Luis Urías appeared or flew back to back to complete the round.

The start of the third started with Kolten Wong’s sound field taking out 2 of the top three hitters, but things got a little hairy for Woodruff and the crew after that. Miguel Sanó makes a single away from center-right to advance Jake Cave, who had previously reached the step, to third place. The Twins had runners in the corners when Woodruff threw a change into dirt in front of home plate and out of Omar Narváez’s glove. Cave scored easily and Sanó moved up to second to put Minnesota ahead 1-0. Max Kepler hit the tip of his bat into the center gap to score Sanó. Bryon Buxton flipped on an inside Woodruff slider to finish the inning, but not before the Twins had scored two runs on two hits.

The Brewers put together a little response to this Twins rally at the end of third. Kolten Wong tore up a single with one out on the right field line for his first official stroke as Brewer. Yelich was hit with a pitch to advance Wong to second place with two strikeouts. Then Avisaíl García hit a small chopper towards the third. Arráez upset him, first allowing García and charging the bases for Travis Shaw. Maeda and Shaw engaged in a tense full-count battle before Maeda finally made Shaw step on the eighth pitch of the attack to send a run. It was an unusual high-stakes walk for Maeda, who only walked ten batters in 2020. Sadly, Lorenzo Cain failed to complete the inning before the Brewers could tack on more runs.

The Twins assembled another round in the fourth. Woodruff started the inning, hitting Mitch Garver on three consecutive called strikes. Lorenzo Cain narrowly missed a single bloop from Andrelton Simmons in the middle, and Maeda sac bunted to push Simmons forward to second. Luis Arráez pushed another single down center field to lead to Andrelton Simmons before Jake Cave stopped to complete the round. This would be Woodruff’s last launch on a beleaguered but relatively controlled start to the opening day.

Billy McKinney came in as a pinched hitter with two outs in the fourth inning to signal Woodruff’s end of the day. McKinney hit a single away down center for his first official shot as a brewer. Kolten Wong, representing the tied race, drew a walk. Keston Hiura came to plate in a high leverage situation, chased a high fastball for a strikeout to end the inning and the threat.

Freddy Peralta replaced Brandon Woodruff at the start of the fifth. Peralta is still fifth in the rotation, but was available today as he is not scheduled to start until Tuesday. Peralta dominated for two innings. He pulled out two to open up the fifth, throwing a healthy mix of curved and fastballs ranging from the mid to upper 90s. Peralta allowed a triple but left the inning scoreless and with three strikeouts. He threw a similar mix of shots in the sixth, allowed a walk and put out three more batters to hit six batters in two innings.

The Brewers threw a threat but also a major slip at the bottom of the fifth. Christian Yelich got a first shot and his first shot of the year. Travis Shaw reached out and advanced Christian Yelich on a sweet single to the first. It should have been a force to get Yelich and could have been a double play, but Andrelton Simmons made a jump to second. Lorenzo Cain lined up a single down the middle to charge the bases with one out. Omar Narváez chose on the left to drive to Yelich. Third base coach Jason Lane gave up Shaw’s house, which was misguided. The pitch to get Shaw out at home was perfect, but he also beat Shaw about 25 feet. Dan Vogelbach came to plate with runners in the first and second row, but came to a stop right in the shift to finish the heat. Vogelbach was the first of Eleven Brewers to retire in order, starting a drought that would last until the ninth inning when Kolten Wong reached after being hit by ground.

Eric Yardley opened the seventh round giving Max Kepler a brace and Byron Buxton a homerun. He came out of the set after causing some playable starting points and line workouts, but the Twins nailed two more points to take a 5-2 lead over the Brewers.

JP Feyereisen of Wisconsinite looked sharp in the eighth. He allowed a walk to open the inning, but induced a smooth return to midfield to oust Jorge Polanco and put out two hitters, including Miguel Sanó, to complete the inning. Josh Lindblom was solid at the top of the ninth, causing a few flyovers and having Andrelton Simmons swing over a splitter to complete the round.

Keston Hiura came to the plate in the ninth with one putout. He was 0-4 after a day chasing overly tall fastballs and watching strikes go through him. Kolten Wong was the first after being hit by a pitch. Hiura hit soft ground back to Twins pitcher Alex Colomé. Colomé went second instead of coming out easy at the start, threw high and left Wong cautious in the second (!) The error brought Christian Yelich to the plate with one out. Yelich smoked a simple RBI inducing a Uecker home run on the right. The blow scored Kolten Wong, advanced Hiura to second and put the Brewers within two points of the tie.

Avisaíl García failed but advanced Hiura to third and Yelich to second. This brought Travis Shaw to the plate and set up the perfect redemption tale for The Mayor. Shaw doubled down on a sharp line to the right center to mark Hiura and Yelich, and 12,000 well-spaced people sounded like 40,000.

The game was tied 5-5 when Lorenzo Cain failed to send the Brewers in extra innings. Josh Hader hit the side at the top of the tenth. His fastball hit triple digits and averaged over 98 km / h.

Cain reappeared as the second runner to start the tenth. Omar Narváez made a single to the right, recovering from a defensive blunder at the top of tenth and passing Lorenzo Cain to third. Orlando Arcia came to plate on the bench. It was the first opening day, he has not taken the start from a shortstop since 2017. Arcia swung on the first ground that came his way, a lead of 90 mph, and the ‘cut in the grass of the infield. The shot had just enough zipper to give Lorenzo Cain time to bolt 90 feet, slide headfirst through the house, beat the tag and score the winning point.

Baseball, dear Brewers fans, is back.

The crew face the Twins in Game 2 of the series on Friday, April 3 at 6:10 a.m. CT at American Family Field.