Brewers continue to mash at home, set record
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MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers kept mashing at Miller Park on Friday, when Lorenzo Cain’s fifth career leadoff home run pushed Milwaukee closer to an all-time record for homers in front of the home fans, and Ryan Braun powered the Brewers to a 3-1 win over the Mets.
It was the Brewers’ 19th home game, and they have at least one home run in all of them. The 19-home-game streak is a franchise record, and it’s two shy of the Major League record to begin a season set by the 2000 Blue Jays, who hit home runs in each of their first 21 home games.
Are the Brewers capable of going deep in all 81 home games?
“I hope so,” said Cain. “I can’t say that for myself, but I know those guys have a good chance of hitting a homer every night. Me, I have my days.”
Said Braun: “Highly unlikely, but obviously we’ve gotten off to a good start here at home. LoCain got us started. After they scored in the first inning, it was big for us to bounce back like that.”
Cain’s home run tied the game at 1, and Braun put the Brewers ahead with a two-run homer in the fifth. At 111.7 mph exit velocity, it marked the third-hardest home run hit by Braun since Statcast was introduced in 2015.
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“I’m sure you guys have heard the analogy before: That’s one of those balls you don’t feel off the bat,” Braun said. “I knew I hit it hard. I didn’t know it was going to be a homer.”
With his first three-hit game of the season, Braun has back-to-back multi-hit games for the first time since last August. His mini-breakthrough comes after first baseman Jesus Aguilar had a productive series against the Rockies following a slow start.
“There’s always an ebb and flow to everybody’s season, and when you get off to a bad start, it feels worse than it usually actually is,” said Braun, who is slashing .226/.274/.453. “The biggest thing is just swinging at good pitches. The swing, I felt, has been OK this whole time. It’s just that the plate discipline has been really bad.”
No team is more reliant on the home run this season than the Brewers, who have scored 63 percent of their runs via the long ball. The 2010 Blue Jays homered for 53.1 percent of their runs to set that all-time record.
Friday’s win wasn’t all home runs, however. After allowing 11 runs in each of their consecutive losses to the Rockies on Wednesday and Thursday, Brandon Woodruff, Alex Claudio, Junior Guerra and Josh Hader combined to hold the Mets scoreless after Wilson Ramos’ run-scoring single off Woodruff in the first inning.
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“Woody really stepped up,” Braun said. “It was a day we needed him to throw the ball well and get us off to a good start to kind of break the momentum we had going against us the last couple of days.”