Weeks, Gomez start season with a bang

Sure, the Brewers were bummed about Zack Greinke’s place on the Opening Day disabled list. But they showed Thursday how they’ll try to get by in his absence.

Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez delivered back-to-back home runs in the Brewers’ first two at-bats of 2011, sparking a three-run rally in the regular season’s opening inning for an early lead against the defending National League Central champion Reds.

Weeks hit Cincinnati starter Edinson Volquez’s eighth pitch of the season to the left-field seats for his 22nd career leadoff home run, and Gomez turned on a sinker two pitches later for a booming homer to the second deck. Ryan Braun walked, Prince Fielder singled and Volquez finally recorded an out on Casey McGehee’s sacrifice fly.

Some historical context: Weeks is the first Brewer ever to lead off a season with a home run, and Weeks and Gomez are the first teammates to start a season with back-to-back homers since the Reds’ Pete Rose and Bobby Tolan took the Dodgers’ Don Drysdale deep to start the 1969 season.

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