Brewers come up short in 5-4 loss to Giants

Homers by Chourio, Adames not enough

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers and San Francisco Giants opened a three-game set at American Family Field tonight with what looked like a great pitching matchup on paper: the Giants’ Logan Webb, one of the league’s best pitchers, against Tobias Myers of the Brewers, one of the league’s best rookie pitchers. But by the time this one was decided, both of them were out of the game. It was a back-and-forth affair which saw four lead changes, but the Brewers were unable to muster up a third comeback after they fell behind for the final time.

Myers, perhaps conscious of the inefficiency that plagued him in his last start, worked through a quick, clean first inning while pitching to contact. In the bottom of the inning, the Brewers made Webb work hard, highlighted by a 15-pitch walk from William Contreras. Milwaukee had runners on first and second with one out at that point, but LaMonte Wade Jr. made a great play diving to his right on a Jake Bauers ground ball that saved a run, and Willy Adames grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning, but Webb needed 33 pitches to get through it.

Myers worked through another scoreless inning in the second despite a leadoff double by Heliot Ramos. Webb looked much more comfortable in the second and had a quick scoreless inning. San Francisco manufactured a run in the top of the third when Grant McCray walked, stole second, got to third on a one-out balk (Myers lost his balance and nearly fell down during a pitch attempt), and scored on an RBI groundout from Wade Jr.

Milwaukee had a quick answer. With one out, Brice Turang lined a single to left, and the next batter, Jackson Chourio, hit an absolute bomb to center field. The two-run shot was measured at 449 feet, the longest home run of the season for the Brewers, and it put out some lights in the stadium’s brand new scoreboard.

San Francisco had an answer of their own, though, as Matt Chapman hit his 21^st home run of the season in the top of the fourth. The Brewers were unable to capitalize on a Blake Perkins leadoff single and his astute baserunning in the bottom of the inning.

In the top of the fifth, Perkins kept the score momentarily tied when he robbed a home run from Thairo Estrada—a real robbery, not one of those fake ones. It was a beautiful play that held up under a replay review to see if the ball had hit the back wall. Unfortunately, the very next hitter, McCray, hit a ball that no one was going to catch, deep into the bleachers in right field. Webb worked a shutdown inning in the bottom of the fifth, despite a hard line drive from Contreras that was hit right at Mike Yastrzemski in right, and through five, the Giants had a 3-2 lead.

Myers was removed after five innings tonight; he didn’t look bad, and the third-inning run he allowed was bad luck, but he was bitten by the home run ball in the fourth and fifth. Luckily there was no one on base for either homer, and the Giants only had one other hit, but Myers left the game as the pitcher on the hook for the loss, having allowed three runs on three hits and a walk on 82 pitches. He was replaced by Bryan Hudson, who pitched a 1-2-3 sixth against the Giants’ 2-3-4 hitters.

Webb was back out for the sixth despite 96 pitches, and Bauers led off with a six-pitch walk, and on Webb’s first pitch to Adames, Bauers easily stole second base. Adames fell behind 0-2 but worked the count back in his favor, and on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Webb’s 110th and final pitch, Adames blasted one out to left field and gave the Brewers back the lead. Webb was replaced by Camilo Doval, who was just recently removed from the Giants’ closer role after a bit of a rough season. Doval struck out Perkins and Rhys Hoskins, but had trouble getting the last out; he gave up a double to Sal Frelick, then walked Joey Ortiz and Turang to load the bases for Chourio. Chourio just missed one and flew out to center, but the Brewers were back in the lead, 4-3.

It didn’t last long. Joel Payamps, who has been excellent lately, was the new pitcher for Milwaukee in the top of the seventh. Chapman led off with a ball into the gap that Frelick made a nice play on to hold him to a single, but the next batter, Yastrzemski, hit a two-run homer to right. They were the first runs Payamps allowed in 12 August appearances. Payamps should have gotten the first out after that, but an errant Adames throw on an Estrada ground ball allowed him to end up at second base, still with nobody out. He did recover to get the next two outs, and with two outs and Estrada on third, Murphy moved to Jared Koenig, who struck out pinch-hitter Mark Canha to end the inning.

Down a run for the third time in the game, the Brewers looked to come back once again against rookie right-hander Landon Roupp. Bauers walked with one out and Perkins walked with two outs, which led to Roupp’s replacement by submariner Tyler Rogers, who came in to face Hoskins. Hoskins got a hold of one but it died in deep center, and the Giants took their 5-4 lead into the eighth.

The pitcher in the top of the eighth was Joe Ross, who has been quite good since moving to a bullpen role, and he put up another clean inning. Rogers, who threw only three pitches to Hoskins, continued in the bottom of the eighth. Frelick knocked a leadoff single to right, but Rogers struck out Ortiz (who did not look comfortable against Rogers’ extreme arm slot). Turang hit a couple of sharp foul balls down the left field line and battled for eight pitches but grounded into a fielder’s choice (it could have been a double play but first baseman Canha nearly threw it into left field, and shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald had to make an acrobatic catch just to get one out), and Chourio was badly fooled when he swung and missed at a 3-2 pitch that would have hit him.

Ross was back out for the ninth, but it’s worth noting that Devin Williams, who had a small injury scare over the weekend, was warm and available had the Brewers tied it or taken the lead. Chapman led off with a rocket up the middle for a single (114.5 mph!), but Ross got the next three to send Milwaukee to the bottom of the ninth needing only one run to tie.

Ryan Walker was the new pitcher. He has been excellent this season, coming in with a 1.98 ERA and 2.33 FIP in 65 appearances, but he’d only saved three games, as Doval had been the team’s closer until quite recently. He got Contreras on a weak ground ball to start the inning and struck out Bauers looking on a nasty backdoor slider. That left Adames as the Brewers’ last hope, and he extended the game with a base hit to left, and Perkins followed with a fly ball hit fairly deep to right but it held up, Yaz made the catch, and the game was over.

This was a game with some big, fun moments but it didn’t end the way the Brewers wanted it to. Adames and Frelick were the only Brewers with multiple hits, and of course Chourio also had the big home run (his 16th) and a stolen base (his 19th). The difference in the game ended up being the balk from Myers and the scuffle from Payamps in the seventh.

Milwaukee will look to get back to their winning ways tomorrow evening at 7:10 p.m. with Freddy Peralta on the hill against San Francisco’s Kyle Harrison.