Guerrero gets 3 hits, Kikuchi earns the win as Blue Jays beat Brewers 7-2

Updated May. 30, 2023 10:41 p.m. ET

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TORONTO (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk each had three hits, Whit Merrifield reached twice and drove in two runs and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-2 Tuesday night.

Brandon Belt and Cavan Biggio each reached base three times and drove in a run as the Blue Jays snapped a four-game home losing streak.

“Today was a perfect example of doing things that we’re good at,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It was good starting pitching, it was clean defense and really good at-bats.”

William Contreras hit a two-run home run, his second homer in two games, as the Brewers lost for the fourth time in five games.

Yusei Kikuchi (6-2) allowed two runs and three hits in five innings, snapping a three-start winless streak. Kikuchi walked a season-high five and struck out four.

“Obviously it wasn’t my A-game,” Kikuchi said through a translator. “I just battled out there and gave it my all. I kept attacking them.”

Nate Pearson pitched two innings, Adam Cimber got two outs in the eighth and Tim Mayza retired Rowdy Tellez to strand a pair. Yimi Garcia finished for Toronto.

Contreras gave Milwaukee an early lead when he connected for his sixth homer in the first, but Toronto answered with four runs in the bottom half against Adrian Houser (1-1). Guerrero and Matt Chapman had RBI singles and two runs scored on Merrifield’s double.

“Any four-run inning in a nine-inning game is going to be tough to come back from,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.

Houser came in having pitched 11 1/3 scoreless innings over his previous two outings. He gave up seven runs, six earned, and a career-worst 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings.

“I just wasn’t executing as good as I have been the last few games,” Houser said.

Kirk reached base to begin the second when Houser couldn’t find first base with his foot after taking a feed from first baseman Mike Brosseau.

“I didn’t get quite far enough over there to the line,” Houser said.

Two more batters reached before Bo Bichette drove in a run with a fielder’s choice and Belt added an RBI single.

The Brewers played north of the border for the first time since sweeping a two-game series in Toronto to start the 2017 season. Milwaukee lost in Canada for the first time since July 2, 2014.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Brewers: Milwaukee put OF/DH Jesse Winker on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 28, because of a cervical strain. Winker underwent disk replacement surgery on his neck during the offseason. He’s batting .204 with no home runs in 39 games. … To replace Winker, the Brewers recalled INF Abraham Toro from Triple-A Nashville.

BIG DAY

Making his first big league start after 680 minor league games over nine seasons, Brewers SS Andruw Monasterio celebrated his 26th birthday by picking up his first big league hit, a single in the second.

Monasterio said he planned to give the ball to his father.

“That’s my first coach,” he said. “He taught me everything I knew before I signed.”

BACK-TO-BACK

Contreras homered in consecutive games for the second time in his career. He also did it May 8 and May 13, 2022, when playing for Atlanta. The Brewers were the opponent in the first of those games.

UP NEXT

RHP Alek Manoah (1-5, 5.53) starts for the Blue Jays on Wednesday against Brewers RHP Julio Teheran (0-1, 1.80).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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