MILWAUKEE — It was a frustrating night to be a pitcher Tuesday at American Family Field.
Both starters, Logan Webb and Tobias Myers, had been as good as they could be at different points in the schedule, but both were out in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Giants and Brewers traded home runs in the opening round of their three-game series.
Mike Yastrzemski’s two-run home run to right field in the seventh inning was the Giants’ third of the night (the fifth for both sides) and proved decisive in a much-needed 5-4 victory to avoid falling back below .500. It was the fourth straight one-run game for the Giants after dropping two of three over the weekend in Seattle.
Six innings earlier, Webb had removed his cap and wiped his brow after his 14th pitch to William Contreras landed in foul territory, just out of reach of first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., then put the Brewers’ designated hitter on base with his 15th pitch of the at-bat. He yelled an expletive into his glove that was audible in the press box when he finally returned to the dugout after exhausting 33 pitches to record his first three outs of the night.
The Giants’ workhorse at the top of their rotation understood the mission — throw as deep as possible after not getting more than four innings from their starters all weekend in Seattle — and his frustration grew with each pitch that didn’t get the job done.
Even more galling than losing a batter on the 15th pitch must be stranding a run in scoring position, allowing the Giants to open a 1-0 lead in the third inning against Myers, who entered the game with the lowest ERA in the major leagues since June 1 but allowed three runs for just the second time in 14 starts during that span.
After Grant McCray singled and stole second base, Myers was called for a foul ball when his cleat appeared to get caught during his throw. That put McCray in position to score on a groundout by Wade, and the Giants added two more runs against him with solo shots by McCray and Matt Chapman.
McCray’s 422-foot shot landed halfway up the second tier in right field and immediately followed a leaping catch by center fielder Blake Perkins that robbed Thairo Estrada of a game-tying home run. Instead, it was the Giants’ rookie center fielder who gave them a brief 3-2 lead in the fifth, but they needed a third home run from Yastrzemski to take the lead for good once both starters left the game.
After trailing 0-2 against reliever Joel Payamps in the seventh inning, Yastrzemski threw two offspeed strikes outside the strike zone, then hit a 2-2 fastball into the right-field seats for a two-run shot that tilted the score to a 5-4 San Francisco advantage.
Webb lasted just two batters in the sixth inning and left the game after serving up his second home run, giving the Brewers a 4-3 lead.
It was Webb’s shortest start since July 25 at Los Angeles, the last time he allowed more than three runs. In five starts since then, he has a 0.96 ERA, the best in the major leagues over that span, and he has scored at least seven runs in four of those outings.
His no-hit streak went back even further, to July 20, a league-best 43⅓ innings before the night, but he gave up two gargantuan hits to Jackson Chourio and Willy Adames. Webb entered the game with one of the lowest home run rates in the major leagues and had not allowed several of his starts this season.
Chourio, the Brewers’ starting left fielder, knocked down part of the center-field scoreboard with his 449-foot shot that opened a 2-1 lead in the third inning. And Adames made his fifth-inning two-run shot even harder — at 110.8 mph to Chourio’s 109.7 mph — by flipping his bat as he watched the ball travel about 435 feet over the Brewers’ bullpen in left-center field.
Meanwhile, the Giants’ bullpen answered the call of duty despite a heavy workload in three tight, high-leverage games over the weekend.
In his new role as a non-closer, Camilo Doval was called upon to clean up Webb’s mess in the sixth and put himself in a tough spot with a pair of walks but also a pair of strikeouts. Tyler Rogers got the final out of the seventh and pitched around a single in the top of the eighth.
And Ryan Walker recorded his fourth clean save after pitching three innings in their first two games against the Mariners.
Notable
The Giants were one of three teams to designate Myers for assignment in 2022 before he attached himself to the Brewers, where he was one of the major leagues’ most effective starters in the second half of the season. During his three-week stint with the Sacramento River Cats, he crossed paths with Heliot Ramos and Sean Hjelle.
Webb’s 15-pitch battle against Conteras in the first inning was one of the longest of the season. The Twins’ Manuel Margot had a 16-pitch at-bat against the Rangers’ Andrew Heaney on Aug. 16, which MLB.com says surpassed Nick Castellanos’ 15-pitch at-bat on Aug. 4 for the longest at-bat of the season.
To be continued
Left to left Kyle Harrison (7-5, 4.00) takes the ball against RHP Freddy Peralta (8-7, 3.86 ERA) in Game 2 of the series. With a few recent days off and Harrison already at his peak in innings (117), the Giants opted to give the 23-year-old rookie nine days between starts. First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 p.m. PT.
