Freddy Peralta and a trio of relievers combined on a one-hitter and Christian Yelich had three hits Friday afternoon for the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, who beat the New York Mets 3-1 in the season opener for both teams.
Yelich homered in the fourth inning for the Brewers to tie the game at 1-1. Milwaukee then took the lead on William Contreras’ tie-breaking sacrifice fly in the fifth and added an insurance run when rookie Jackson Chourio capped an impressive big-league debut by hitting into an RBI fielder’s choice in the seventh.
Chourio, who is 20 years and 18 days old, batted leadoff and went 1-for-3 with a single, a walk and a stolen base. He is the youngest player to bat leadoff in his major league debut since Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr was 19 years and 13 days old in 1937.
Peralta, making his first Opening Day start, retired the first four batters he faced before Starling Marte hit a line-drive homer off the metallic railing in left field. He walked the next batter, DJ Stewart, but catcher Contreras picked Stewart off first and Peralta retired the final 13 batters he faced, including seven by strikeout.
Over his six innings, Peralta (1-0) walked one and struck out eight, the latter of which tied Ben Sheets’ franchise record for strikeouts in an Opening Day start.
Trevor Megill worked around a leadoff walk in the seventh and Joel Payamps threw a perfect eighth before Abner Uribe tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save in the 25th one-hitter in Brewers history.
The Mets were one-hit on Opening Day for the first time in franchise history and the 43rd time overall.
Jose Quintana (0-1), who was making his second Opening Day start, took the loss for the Mets after allowing two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out four over 4 2/3 innings.
The Brewers improved to 29-26-1 all-time on Opening Day while the Mets fell to 41-22. New York’s .651 winning percentage on Opening Day is the best in baseball.
–Field Level Media
