MILWAUKEE -- Last year, the Brewers couldn’t buy any early runs. Lately, even with a third of the lineup on the injured list, they’re swimming in them.

Avisaíl García’s broken-bat blooper was the first of the Brewers’ five consecutive two-out singles in a five-run first, giving Brett Anderson all the cushion he needed to cover seven innings of a 7-1 win over the Pirates at American Family Field.

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It was a nice, early lift for a team that earlier Saturday added Christian Yelich (back) to an injured list that already included Kolten Wong (oblique) and Lorenzo Cain (quadriceps). Even with those losses to the lineup, the Brewers have outscored opponents 15-1 in the first inning this season in a dramatic departure from one of last year’s storylines. Through their first 14 games in 2021, they have matched their first-inning run production from all of 2020 -- including 60 games during the shortened regular season plus two games against the Dodgers in the postseason -- when the Brewers were outscored by a 33-15 margin in the opening frame.

This year is off to a much different start, and Anderson has been the most prominent beneficiary. Last weekend at St. Louis, the Brewers spotted him a 4-0 lead in the first inning and a 7-0 lead by the middle of the second. On Saturday it was 5-0 in the first inning and 7-0 in the second.

“It's a little much,” Anderson deadpanned. “Like, if we go in two- or three-[run] increments, that'd be good. But hitting in the first inning isn't my favorite.”

He was joking, of course. Anderson has batted in the first inning of each of his last two starts, and any pitcher will take that. Six days earlier at Busch Stadium, Anderson actually worked a bases-loaded walk. On Saturday against Pirates starter Trevor Cahill, an old friend from their days in the A’s system, Anderson struck out for the first of three times in the game.

“I think there should be a rule that if we're up by like four or more, I should be able to not take my at-bat and be like, 'Here, just take a minute and do whatever you want out there but I'll just sit in the dugout,'" Anderson quipped.

Anderson’s at-bats aside, Cahill was victimized by a flurry of contact. In the first inning with two outs and Jackie Bradley Jr. at second base, García shattered his bat on a soft single to center field for a 1-0 lead that grew to 5-0 when Omar Narváez, Billy McKinney, Luis Urías and Jace Peterson followed with hits of their own. By the end of the second, Bradley already had two hits and two runs scored. García had two broken-bat RBIs. Seven Brewers had a hit. Five players had an RBI.

By the end of the game, all eight of the Brewers’ positional starters had a hit, including three from Bradley and a pair from McKinney -- two outfielders who will have to pick up the slack while Cain and Yelich are down. Anderson joined Brandon Woodruff as the only Milwaukee starters to clear seven full innings in a game this season and was charged with one run, unearned, on six hits, a walk and three strikeouts. And manager Craig Counsell was able to get a scoreless inning apiece under the belt of relievers Eric Yardley and Drew Rasmussen, each of whom needed an outing like that.

“Walking out there with the big lead early in the game is a great feeling for a starting pitcher,” Counsell said of Anderson’s outing. “It puts you on the aggressive side of everything that you're doing, takes the ‘careful’ out of everything that you're doing. It’s a great way for Brett to pitch. Let's keep that trend going for sure.”

Even after dropping Friday’s series opener, the Brewers have won 12 of their last 15 games against the Pirates in Milwaukee.

“It was one of the better overall team wins we've had so far,” Anderson said.

And a nice change of pace from the earlier worries that the Brewers couldn’t score against opposing starters.

“That's why I complained about it,” Counsell said. “Because then baseball changes. That's how it works, right? ... That's a nice trend to start. It puts the other team behind the eight-ball right away.”