Two years ago, the Milwaukee Brewers won on Opening Day thanks to a walk-off catch by Lorenzo Cain at the wall. This year, Cain scored the winning run to give the Brewers a 6-5 victory coming back from being down 5-2 in the ninth inning. Milwaukee came from behind a bunch in the 2020 season, and they’re continuing the trend at least for game number one of the 2021 season. Great win for the Brewers who looked somewhat dead in the water and thanks to Minnesota not being on their game defensively, Milwaukee took advantage scoring the 6-5 victory.

FIVE STARS
Travis Shaw – Many people thought the Travis Shaw signing was odd. He seemed to burn a bridge here. And it seemed like he was washed. The 2018 Travis Shaw showed up yesterday. Shaw had three RBIs, two hits, and a walk. He came through with the biggest hit of the game as he tied up the ball game in the ninth inning. It’s one game, but if Shaw finds it again, look the fuck out.

FOUR STARS
The strikeouts – This is positive whereas, in years past, this might be in the negative. The Brewers’ pitching staff struck out 17 batters on Thursday afternoon. That’s an insane amount of batters. If you think about it, Minnesota made 30 outs in this game. Milwaukee struck out their batters 56% of the time. Yes, they gave up five runs, but my goodness, these guys had their strikeout pitches rolling especially Josh Hader and Freddy Peralta.

THREE STARS
Christian Yelich – Here’s where I’m at with Yeli. It was such a bad 2020 that I want to see production out of him. He had two hits today and helped start a rally in the ninth inning. That’s a good day. Let’s build on that for Saturday and moving forward. No one will be surprised if Yelich gets rolling rather quickly in April. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again.

TWO STARS
Brandon Woodruff – Tough day at the office for Woody. He gave up three runs, six hits, and walked a couple. It was not his best start. Minnesota is a tough draw for the first opponent, so, there is no need to push a panic button or overreact to what happened with the Brewers’ ace in this one. He still showed some good signs. It wasn’t like Kyle Lohse’s opening day gas can outing.

ONE STAR
Jason Lane – If you don’t know who Jason is, he is the third-base coach. This is his first game at that position and Lane had an awful send of Shaw early in this game. It made an easy out at home and instead of the Brewers starting a rally, it ended right there. Brewers trailed 3-2 until Eric Yardley gave up a blast. It’s game one jitters for everyone.

Next up: Brewers and Twins will not play tonight, rather, they’ll get ready to tangle on Saturday night. GREAT pitching matchup with Corbin Burnes on the mound taking on Jose Berrios. Both pitchers dominated the opposing team last year, so, this might be a 2-1 barnburner.

Charlie.