Rowdy Tellez has no explanation for his astonishing level of success against the Boston Red Sox.
Tellez continued to haunt the Red Sox on Saturday night, hitting home runs for the second straight game while helping the Milwaukee Brewers win 5-4.
Tellez, who faced Boston most often while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays from 2018-21, has 14 home runs and 29 RBIs in 37 games against the Red Sox.
“I don’t know,” Tellez said. “They’re just the unlucky team, I guess. Somebody always has to have a team to do better against, and I guess the Sox are mine.”
Tellez entered Saturday with a 1.183 career OPS against the Red Sox. He hasn’t hit more than eight home runs against any other team.
His two-run homer off Garrett Whitlock in the third inning Saturday gave the Brewers an early 3-0 lead. The 412-foot blast over the center field wall in a 3-2 turnaround capped an eight-pitch plate appearance.
"He was fighting good pitches and he hit the one he got"Whitlock said.
Yu Chang and Raphael Devers they hit two-run home runs for the Red Sox. Devers’ outburst was his eighth (leading) of the season in the American League.
Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich went 2 for 4 with two runs and one RBI.
The Brewers, who fell 5-3 to the Red Sox on Friday, still haven’t lost back-to-back games all season.
“It’s great because we went through quite a few losing streaks last year,” Brewers reliever Hoby Milner said. “It’s hard to come back from a losing streak and warm up. … We are going to lose some games and we know it. It’s when you start losing several in a row that you start to doubt yourself. As long as we can avoid that, we should be in good shape.”
The Red Sox drove the tying run into scoring position in each of the last two innings, but were unable to break through.
Justin Turner hit a one-out double off Peter Strzelecki in the eighth, but Milner struck out Jarren Duran and Devers to end the threat.
Masataka Yoshida reached on a one-out single in the ninth and advanced to second on Raimel Tapia’s groundout to left, but Devin Williams flied out Reese McGuire to left for his third save in as many chances.
Milwaukee’s Wade Miley (3-1) struck out three and allowed four hits, two runs and a walk in five innings to lower his ERA to 1.96. Whitlock (1-2) struck out one and allowed eight hits, five runs and a walk in four innings.
Miley benefited from good defense behind him. After Chang’s two-out throw to left field cut Milwaukee’s lead to 3-2 in the fifth, Brewers rookie center fielder Joey Wiemer made a jumping catch on the warning track to rob Alex Executioner an extra base.
“He’s one of the best outfielders in baseball, as young as he is,” Miley said. “It’s fun to watch.”
