Whit Merrifield slid under the tag to give the Royals the lead with two outs in the eighth inning, Brewers manager Craig Counsell immediately challenged the bang-bang call. This time, the process worked in Mike Matheny’s favor. The safe call stood, the Royals tacked on another run when Luis Urias committed an error on a groundball by Salvador Perez, and Kansas City went on to a 2-0 victory.
The Royals’ Kris Bubic, who had been working in relief but got the start when Danny Duffy headed to the injured list, threw six innings of one-hit ball.
The bullpen did the rest with Jake Brentz (1-0) getting the last out of the eighth inning to earn his first career win and Josh Staumont handling the ninth for his fourth save.
Duffy was placed on the IL with a flexor strain in his left forearm. The move was retroactive to Friday.
RHP Kyle Zimmer (left trapezius strain) was activated after two rehab starts at Triple-A Omaha. He is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA over 13 1/3 innings. … SS Adalberto Mondesi (right oblique strain) moved from Double-A Northwest Arkansas to Omaha as he continues to rehab. He went on the IL the day before the season began.
Brewers RHP Corbin Burnes (2-3, 1.57) returns to the mound Wednesday night after his record streak of 58 strikeouts without a walk — which ended against St. Louis last week — was broken by the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole on Monday night. RHP Brad Keller (3-4, 6.75) faces him for Kansas City at 7:10.