KANSAS CITY – Pat Murphy isn’t afraid to admit when he’s wrong.
And the Milwaukee Brewers manager did so following his team’s 5-2 win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday afternoon, April 4 – one that was powered on offense by Garrett Mitchell.
The center fielder doubled in two runs in the first inning and then slugged a three-run home run in his ensuing at-bat in the third in a show of the game-turning talent the 2020 first-round pick has always had but been unable to display after battling myriad injury problems since breaking into the major leagues in 2022.
“I was the first one to believe that Garrett wasn’t ready,” Murphy said. “He had really poor results in spring training (.081 average and 20 strikeouts in 37 at-bats) in 13 Cactus League games), but the front office was really adamant that this guy can be our best player and in a lot of ways I was skeptical.
“It’s really the front office who convinced me that, ‘Hey, look, this is right for our team.’ He’s done OK so far in his first 6-7 games but today was a showcase of what he can do.
“Pretty special.”
Mitchell’s early outburst against spot starter Luinder Avila was well-timed, too, as Milwaukee (6-1) managed only two hits and three walks against four Kansas City relievers the rest of the way.
Chad Patrick (1-0) started and gutted his way through five shutout innings without his best stuff. Aaron Ashby allowed both runs in his 1 ⅔ innings of work, with Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill teaming up to shut the door late.
What a start for Garrett Mitchell
Luis Rengifo doubled with one out in the first and William Contreras walked, with his successful challenge of a strike call helping pave the way to his free pass.
Two batters later, Mitchell smashed a two-run double off the base of the wall in center to get the Brewers out to a quick 2-0 lead. It left the bat at 108.8 mph, continuing a trend early in the season of Mitchell making very loud contact on his swings.
But he wasn’t finished.
With two outs in the third, Contreras doubled and Christian Yelich reached on an infield single to again bring Mitchell to the plate, and that time he smacked a 420-foot shot at 108.1 mph over the wall in right-center to extend Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0.
The five runs batted in were a single-game high for Mitchell, and his 10 RBI on the season lead the Brewers. He’s hitting .333 with an OPS of 1.040, and clearly taking advantage of the opportunity afforded him now that he’s back healthy after an oblique strain and shoulder surgery limited him to just 25 games in 2025.
“It’s huge,” he said. “Just trying to put together quality at-bats. Not trying to do too much; just trying to pass it onto the next guy. You love extra-base hits, you love hitting homers but that’s not what I was looking to do in those situations.
“I was trying to put a ball in play and swing at a pitch that was in my zone, and happy to see both of them get down.”
Chad Patrick gets through five innings
Patrick wasn’t overly sharp, but he still managed to get through five shutout innings on 86 pitches.
He faced the minimum in the first thanks to a 4-6-3 double-play grounder from Vinnie Pasquantino, then worked his way out of a two-on, one-out jam in the third that was started when Brandon Lockridge lost a routine fly ball in the sun in left.
Patrick also navigated around a one-out walk and double in the fourth and capped his day with his lone 1-2-3 frame in the fifth.
He allowed four hits and walked three while striking out three in lowering his season ERA to 0.96.
“It was ‘grindy’ just because I couldn’t really find the zone,” Patrick said. “I was always down in the count today, but I felt like I competed well and made pitches when I had to. I feel like competing and taking that step forward when you need to is the right way.”
Added Murphy: “Chad got the job done. He’d be the first to admit he did not have his best location, he didn’t have his best stuff. But he battled. And that’s just more of a positive than anybody can know when you don’t have your best stuff and you get through it.”
Royals break up the shutout
Ashby worked around a two-on, one-out situation after entering for Patrick in the sixth but wasn’t as lucky in the seventh.
A leadoff walk to Nick Loftin immediately came back to bite Ashby as pinch-hitter Lane Thomas lined a run-scoring double to left.
After Maikel Garcia grounded out, moving Thomas to third, Bobby Witt Jr. smashed a single off Brice Turang’s glove up the middle to pull Kansas City to within 5-2.
Ashby then struck out Pasquantino and handed the ball off to Uribe, but not before Witt stole second base. Uribe entered and quickly dispatched Salvador Perez by getting him to pop out to Turang, keeping it a 5-2 game.
Megill made things interesting, walking a pair in the ninth, but rallied back to get Pasquantino looking at a called third for his second save of the season.
What time are the Brewers games today?
Time: 1:10 p.m. and 6:10 p.m.
What channel are the Brewers games on today?
TV channel: Brewers.TV.
Brewers 2026 record
5-1.
Brewers afternoon game lineup
Royals lineup
Brewers schedule
Brewers at Royals, April 5, 1:10 p.m.: Milwaukee LHP Kyle Harrison (0-0, 1.80) vs. Kansas City LHP Kris Bubic (1-0, 1.50). TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Red Sox, April 6, 5:45 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Brandon Woodruff (1-0, 3.60) vs. Boston TBA. TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Red Sox, April 7, 5:45 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Jacob Misiorowski (1-0, 2.45) vs. Boston TBA. TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
Brewers at Red Sox, April 8, 12:35 p.m.: Milwaukee RHP Chad Patrick (1-0, 0.96) vs. Boston TBA. TV – Brewers.TV. Radio – AM-620 WTMJ.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 5, Royals 2: Garrett Mitchell drives in all five runs in win
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
