Civale leads Brewers’ shutout of Giants

Aaron Civale pitched seven scoreless innings of two-hit baseball

Box Score

Following Freddy Peralta’s excellent start yesterday, the Brewers went for the series win over the Giants on Thursday afternoon. Aaron Civale picked up where Peralta left off on Wednesday, tossing seven scoreless innings to lead the Brewers to a 6-0 win.

The only trouble that Civale got into throughout the day came in the first inning. A walk to Tyler Fitzgerald and a single by Michael Conforto put runners at the corners with two outs. Civale got out of it by striking out Matt Chapman to end the frame.

From there, he didn’t have more than one baserunner in an inning the rest of the day. Fitzgerald singled in the third, and Jerar Encarnacion also drew a walk to start the fifth. That was it from the Giants. Civale finished up the day by retiring the last nine batters he faced. He struck out seven in total, six of those coming in his first three innings.

The pitching staff today was anchored by the Aarons, as Aaron Ashby took the last two innings in relief. He was also on top of his game. He retired all six batters he faced, with three of those coming by the strikeout.

That was more than enough as the Brewers offense provided plenty of runs. Garrett Mitchell started out the scoring with his third home run of the season, putting the Brewers up 1-0.

They added on from there in the second. Gary Sánchez followed that up with a walk, and Joey Ortiz hit a double off the right field wall, putting runners at second and third. Blake Perkins brought one in with a sacrifice fly to deep center, more than enough to score Sánchez.

In the third, the Brewers got runners on the corners with two outs. William Contreras drew a walk and Willy Adames singled. With Mitchell at the plate, Adames took off on a 1-2 count, but the play was to draw a rundown so Contreras could score. It worked perfectly, as Adames kept the attention on himself while Contreras ran home. Fitzgerald threw to Chapman in an attempt to get Contreras, but Chapman bobbled the catch and Contreras stole home easily.

The fourth started out bad for the Brewers as they recorded two outs, but back-to-back walks by Perkins and Brice Turang chased Giants starter Hayden Birdsong out of the game. Sean Hjelle entered in relief, and the Brewers got to him right away. Jackson Chourio hit a booming two-RBI double and Contreras brought in Chourio with a RBI single to cap the scoring.

Conteras and Mitchell led the Brewers offense with two-hit days, both also adding on a walk and driving in a run. The offense had as many hits as it did walks, coming up with eight of each. Sánchez had an 0-for-2 day at the plate, but was the lone Brewer to draw two walks in the game. Every starter reached base at least once, either by a hit or walk.

The Brewers travel to Cincinnati next for a four-game, three-day series against the Reds. The series will open with a doubleheader on Friday. The day will start at 11:40 a.m. with Colin Rea getting the start. Game two will take place that evening at 5:40 p.m., with the starter TBD. Both games will be on Bally Sports Wisconsin.