Playing at American Family Field, the San Francisco Giants got six insurance runs in the 7th inning that included an Eric Haase grand slam. Their nine-run cushion, plus a home run robbery by Drew Gilbert in the bottom of the inning, proved to be just enough as the Giants held on for a 12-9 win and a series split.
On a day where the wind was blowing out hard to left field, Casey Schmitt hit a leadoff home run, Jung Hoo Lee had another
four-hit game, and the Giants piled up 20 hits in a game that unexpectedly turned into a save situation for Caleb Killian (S 4). Adrian Houser hit the wall with one out in the 5th, so Sam Hentges picked up his first win of the season by escaping the inning.
Not only did Schmitt establish a new career high with his 13th dinger, he made a very nice catch in left in the bottom of the inning, as well snagging a tough grounder with the bases loaded while playing first base in the 9th. At this rate, Schmitt will be taking over center field after the All-Star break and become the team’s emergency catcher around Labor Day.
The 5-6-7 hitters did the majority of the damage Thursday afternoon, combing for six runs, 10 hits, and four RBI. It started in the first inning, where the Giants got an RBI single from Bryce Eldridge (3-for-4, BB) and an RBI double from Matt Chapman (3-for-5) that knocked in Lee (4-for-5).
Lee has a 12-game hitting streak, during which he’s raised his batting average by 55 points. He has 19 hits in his last seven games, which no Giant has done since Bill Terry in 1932, a year where he was also managing the team. Watch your back, Vitello! Eldridge has a seven-game hitting streak where he’s raised his average 116 points and his OPS by 300 points, which is probably comparable do something Mel Ott did in 1932, right?
The trio struck again in the 3rd inning. Lee doubled in Willy Adames, who just missed a home run, Eldridge walked, and Chapman hit an RBI single. Schmitt made the game 6-1 with a sac fly.
Jackson Chourio hit the first in his pair of two-run homers in the 5th, during a six-pitch stretch where Houser gave aup a double, home run, and another double. Still, the Giants kept hitting and kept knocking out Brewers pitchers. Literally and figuratively.
The third-inning rally chased Crow. His replacement, DL Hall, might be heading to the IL after injuring his pectoral muscle. He had to leave the game in the middle of an at-bat. Grant Anderson entered the game for him, only to leave when Eldridge lined a ball off his forearm in the 7th.
Jake Woodford came in and gave up a single to Chapman and Haase’s bomb to center field.
Woodford gave up four more singles, including Lee’s second hit of the inning, and a sacrifice fly to make the game 12-3.
Everything nearly fell apart when the Giants’ Choose Your Own Adventure bullpen tried to protect their six-run lead. Chourios went deep again off Brubaker, one of two home runs that bounced off the top of the fence Thursday. David Hamilton hit his second home run off the season off Tristan Beck in the 8th. Still, Wilkin Ramos entered the 9th with a seemingly-safe six-run lead.
Then, as Shawn Estes so poetically said, the Giants and their fans “puckered” a little. Chourio reached on an infield single. Even though the Brewers had cleared their bench in the 8th to rest their 3-4-5 hitters, the replacements delivered in the 9th. Gary Sanchez singled. Joey Ortiz and Blake Perkins walked. That was it for Ramos, and Killian entered with the bases loaded and an improbable save situation.
Killian got a strikeout and an RBI groundout before Luis Rengfio took a break from robbing Giants of hits at third to deliver an RBI single. Then Hamilton delivered a scare, but his potentially game-tying home run died on the warning track.
The wind-aided game should prepare the Giants for a weekend at Wrigley Field, delighting the hitters and terrifying the bullpen. The lineup is looking great — Rafael Devers finally got his first hit of the series in his final at-bat — while the ‘pen remains a work in regress.
Ultimately, the series felt like knocking down the widest pins in a bowling alley
