Gary Sanchez HR helps Brewers take series at Royals

Gary Sanchez hit a two-run home run and William Contreras had two hits and two RBIs in the visiting Milwaukee Brewers' 8-5 series-clinching win over the Kansas City Royals.

Brewers starting pitcher Kyle Harrison (1-0) picked up the win as he scattered three hits, gave up two runs, walked two and struck out six. Kris Bubic (1-1) took the loss for the Royals as he surrendered four hits, four runs, three walks and eight strikeouts.

Trevor Megill picked up his third save of the season. Contreras was 2-for-3 with a run, two RBIs and two walks for Milwaukee.

Maikel Garcia was 2-for-5 with a run, a two-run home run and three RBIs and Vinnie Pasquantino was 2-for-5 with two RBIs for the Royals.

In the first inning, Contreras coaxed a two-out walk. Cleanup hitter, Christian Yelich lined a full-count fastball down the left field line for an RBI triple as the Brewers took a 1-0 lead.

One hitter later, Sanchez also worked the count full before launching a high fastball to straightaway left field for a two-run homer as Milwaukee extended its lead to 3-0. All three of the Brewers' runs in the inning came with two outs.

The Royals cut the Brewers' lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the third when Garcia launched a two-run home run into deep left field.

Later that inning, Milwaukee right fielder Luis Matos scooped up Vinnie Pasquantino's single and fired off a one-hop throw to Contreras whose swipe tag caught a sliding Bobby Witt Jr. on the arm, preserving the one-run lead.

In the top of the fourth, the Brewers again used a two-out rally to push their lead to 4-2. Brandon Lockridge walked and came all the way around from first base to score with a head-first slide on a Perkins double to left field.

Milwaukee scored two runs in the top of the seventh as Contreras' single up the middle scored Brice Turang and Luis Rengifo for a 6-2 lead.

Garcia's RBI single and Pasquantino's two-RBI single in the bottom of the seventh cut the Brewers' lead to 6-5.

But Jake Bauers' RBI double and Lockridge's bloop RBI single pushed Milwaukee's lead to 8-5 in the top of the ninth.