KANSAS CITY -- Through two starts, the early returns on Brewers left-hander Kyle Harrison have been encouraging.
Harrison was solid again on Sunday afternoon as he limited the Royals to two runs on three hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings to help Milwaukee secure an 8-5 victory at Kauffman Stadium. By winning two of three in the weekend series, the Brewers were able to move on to Boston with a 7-2 record while showing some characteristics of the team that rang up 95 victories in 2025.
Starting pitching is generally the foundation of a winning ballclub and Harrison is flashing signs that he can be a key ingredient for Milwaukee this season. He finished his outing with a flourish, retiring nine of the last 10 hitters that he faced after getting a huge lift from right fielder Luis Matos, who threw out speedy Bobby Witt Jr. at the plate on a 93.4 mph throw in the third, when Witt tried to score the potential tying run from second on a Vinnie Pasquantino single.
“He kept his composure,” manager Pat Murphy said of Harrison. “Even when he had a couple of hiccups and gave up a couple of runs, he stuck in there and pitched into the sixth inning. Which I thought was wonderful.”
Harrison’s toughest inning was the third. With a 3-0 lead, he surrendered a two-run homer to Maikel Garcia. Moments later, Witt was at second, when Pasquantino singled sharply and Witt came around third headed for the plate.
What made the play by Matos especially impressive was that Witt is one of the fastest baserunners in the Major Leagues.
“It’s huge,” Harrison said. “The throw was on the money.”
Harrison backed up the play at the plate and got an up-close view of the out call.
“Pretty cool,” Harrison said.
The Brewers are intrigued to see what they have in Matos, who made his Brewers debut in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader.
“He’s a good baseball player with a lot of talent,” Murphy said. “He’s got talent in every area. It just hasn’t come to a head yet to get him to stick with a Major League team. We’ve seen him hit and obviously destroy us. So, the potential is there. And defensively today he looked fine.”
The Brewers built a 6-2 lead in the top of the seventh, but they had to withstand a furious Kansas City rally in the bottom of that frame, when the Royals saw the first four batters reach base. An RBI single by Garcia and two-run single by Pasquantino brought the Royals within one at 6-5. But former Royals reliever Angel Zerpa retired Salvador Perez and Lane Thomas to preserve the one-run lead.
Milwaukee was able to add a couple of tack-on runs in the ninth to provide closer Trevor Megill with some breathing room.
On a day when a lot of Brewers contributed, Murphy was quick to laud catcher William Contreras, who reached base four times and guided Milwaukee's pitchers effectively.
“I think Contreras deserves a lot of credit for the way he handled his type of game,” Murphy said. “He just was really good.”
Harrison wound up throwing 90 pitches with 55 strikes. He continues to focus on locating the fastball, with the other pitches in his arsenal coming off of that.
“That’s where we start,” Harrison said. “All my pitches tunnel off the fastball. Just try to get ahead in counts and attack these hitters. Had a couple of walks here and there, but I felt like I did a good job of getting back into counts.”