Brewers halt Giants' four-game winning streak
Milwaukee's Eric Thames and Jesus Aguilar hit home runs and the Brewers' bullpen tossed five scoreless innings in a 5-3 win over the host San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon.
Holding the 5-3 lead and having lost three of four, Milwaukee turned to closer Josh Hader for a two-inning save, and the left-hander retired all six batters for his 17th save in 18 chances.
Christian Yelich went 2-for-5 with two doubles in the Brewers' 12-hit attack, and Yasmani Grandal, Travis Shaw and Thames each added two hits.
Matt Albers (3-2) yielded just a sacrifice fly after coming on in the fifth inning to relieve Milwaukee starter Chase Anderson with the bases loaded and no outs.
Kevin Pillar doubled and had an RBI and a run scored and Evan Longoria tripled and scored a run for the Giants, who had their season-high four-game winning streak snapped.
San Francisco starter Jeff Samardzija (3-6) grounded an RBI single but allowed four runs and nine hits in five innings.
The Brewers used timely two-out hitting in the first two innings to go up 2-0 against Samardzija.
With two outs and Mike Moustakas (walk) and Ryan Braun (single) on base, Grandal stroked an RBI single to right for a 1-0 lead.
Milwaukee made it 2-0 in the second on a looping single to left by Ben Gamel to score Shaw.
Yelich followed with a drive to right that appeared to drive in a third run. However, the home side caught a break when the ball hopped between the gap in the two gates in the right-field fence for a ground-rule double, sending Gamel back to third. Braun then struck out.
Longoria opened the second with a triple - the Giants' fourth of the three-game series - and Pillar's double inside third base put the club on the board, and Samardzija's single tied it 2-2.
Yelich's second double in the fourth inning did manage to score Gamel for a 3-2 lead.
Thames hit a towering shot off a 1-2 cutter from Samardzija that banged off the right-field foul pole for his 10th homer, a solo shot, in the fifth.
The Giants started the fifth by loading the bases against Anderson but only managed a sacrifice fly by Brandon Belt to make it 4-3.
Aguilar hammered his fourth career pinch-hit homer leading off the sixth. It was his fifth overall blast of this season.
--Field Level Media
