Brewers drop series opener to the Giants, 5-2

Caleb Durbin picks up his first career homer, Craig Yoho makes his first appearance with a strikeout in an otherwise disappointing night

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers dropped the first of their four-game set with the San Francisco Giants on Monday evening, falling 5-2 as the offense couldn’t capitalize on opportunities throughout the night.

After Brice Turang struck out to begin the night, Jackson Chourio reached on a bunt single but was picked off by Robbie Ray for the second out of the frame. Christian Yelich followed with a single of his own, and William Contreras walked, but Rhys Hoskins ended the two-out rally with a popout.

Quinn Priester walked Mike Yastrzemski to begin the bottom of the frame, but he was erased on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play as he set down Willy Adames.

Milwaukee struck first in the top of the second as Sal Frelick singled before Caleb Durbin took Ray deep to left for his first career homer, putting the Crew up 2-0.

The Giants struck back in the bottom of the second with a wild defensive inning for Milwaukee’s defense (though no errors were technically made). Matt Chapman walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then was caught between second and third on a groundball to Joey Ortiz at short, but Ortiz unwisely threw behind Chapman, who got back to the base in time, putting runners at first and second with no outs.

After a pop-up from LaMonte Wade Jr., Chapman was caught stealing third, and it looked like Priester might escape once again, but he then walked Wilmer Flores, and Patrick Bailey followed with an RBI single to make it 2-1. After an infield single by Tyler Fitzgerald, Yastrzemski hit a liner that seemed destined to fall out to right, but Chourio made a nice sliding catch to stop San Francisco from adding any more runs.

The next few innings featured some traffic but not much else. In the third, Contreras picked up a single and Hoskins walked, but neither scored. Yelich then drew a walk in the fifth and stole second but didn’t make it the rest of the way around.

In the bottom of the fifth, Priester got into more trouble on the basepaths, allowing another infield single to Fitzgerald before walking Yastrzemski. Pat Murphy came to get Priester there, as he made it just four-plus frames on 81 pitches.

With two runners on, Nick Mears was called on to stop the damage. He induced a grounder from Adames to Durbin at third, who threw to second for the first out, but the turn from Turang ended up getting by Hoskins — it was ruled an error on Turang, but it should’ve been an error on Hoskins — and allowed Fitzgerald to score from third.

Mears did stop the damage from there, getting two more groundouts to keep the score at 2-2.

After a 1-2-3 inning that featured a Hoskins’ single being erased by an Ortiz double play, Murphy gave the bottom of the sixth to Grant Anderson, who has been great the last two-plus weeks after a rough start to the year. He got Heliot Ramos to fly out and struck out Wade, but he left a sinker over the middle of the plate to Flores, who promptly hit it 399 feet over the wall in left for a 3-2 lead through six innings.

The Brewers again went down 1-2-3 in the seventh, and Jared Koenig took the bottom of the inning looking to keep the deficit at one. He got Fitzgerald to hit another grounder to Durbin at third (his third of the night), but this one resulted in an out. Yastrzemski followed with a one-out single but was erased on a fielder’s choice to Durbin, which could’ve been a double play with a better throw to Turang. Instead, Adames stood at first with two outs, and Jung Hoo Lee made Milwaukee pay with a triple into Triples Alley, putting San Francisco up 4-2.

Joel Payamps and his 17.55 season ERA (13 earned runs in 6 ²⁄₃ innings) took over for Koenig, and he got the third out on a very loud, very deep flyout from Chapman to straight away center.

Needing an eighth-inning rally, the Brewers did draw a pair of walks, but it was all for naught as Hayden Birdsong picked up three strikeouts, including a few questionable calls that resulted in some barking between home plate umpire Alex MacKay, Giants’ manager Bob Melvin, and Murphy, though no ejections occurred.

The highlight of the night for most avid Brewers fans came in the bottom of the eighth, when prospect Craig Yoho, making his MLB debut, got the ball facing a 4-2 deficit. The inning didn’t go perfectly, but he did pick up his first career strikeout against Ramos before allowing a walk to Wade and a single just over first base down the right field line, putting runners at the corners. He then induced a shallow flyout from Bailey, but it was enough to score Wade from third as Hoskins opted to cut the ball off near the mound and throw Flores out trying to advance to second.

Quick funny anecdote: MLB’s pitch tracking system could not figure out Yoho’s changeup, labeling them as “curveballs.”

Closer Camilo Doval made quick work of the Brewers in the ninth, getting a flyout from pinch-hitter Jake Bauers, striking out Garrett Mitchell, and getting another flyout from Durbin to end the game.

The 5-2 loss didn’t feature a lot of excitement for the Brewers, but Durbin did get his first career homer, and we got to see Yoho confuse MLB hitters after fooling minor leaguers the last year-plus in Milwaukee’s system.

While the Brewers had six hits and five walks, they went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and just didn’t get that big hit after Durbin’s homer. Six different players had one hit each, with Yelich and Hoskins both reaching three times with a hit and two walks.

Anderson got the loss after allowing the go-ahead homer to Flores, while Priester allowed two runs over four-plus innings. Koenig and Yoho also allowed runs in the loss.

The Brewers will look to shake this one off as they’re back in action for another late night on Tuesday. First pitch is once agains at 8:45 p.m. CT with Jose Quintana on the hill for Milwaukee opposing familiar foe Jordan Hicks for San Francisco.