Making some noise on a silent night
Braun, Aguilar rescue Milwaukee’s lackluster offense
A quiet offensive night wasn't enough to sink the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.
Ryan Braun hit a two-run home run in the first inning and Jesús Aguilar a two-run double in the seventh to account for two of the Brewers' three hits in a 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Miller Park.
It marked 12th time in 52 games this season Milwaukee has beaten an opponent when being outhit, with San Francisco collecting only five hits – all of which came in the first five innings against starter Chase Anderson.
The Brewers failed to take advantage of three walks in the sixth inning and drew two more in the sev enth with Curtis Granderson and Eric Thames doing so against Hunter Strickland.
Strickland was replaced by lefthander Tony Watson, and he got Lorenzo Cain to fly out and struck out Christian Yelich looking before Aguilar went down and stroked a changeup to right-center for Milwaukee's first hit since Braun's homer.
Joakim Soria and Jeremy Jeffress tossed a perfect eighth and ninth, respectively, with Jeffress recording his ninth save as Milwaukee upped its lead in the National League wildcard chase to 11⁄2 games over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Home-plate umpire Adam Hamari ejected Giants manager Bruce Bochy with two outs in the ninth after Nick Hundley was called out on strikes.
Things looked promising early for the Brewers, who got a leadoff single Cain and then a two-out homer to left-center from Braun to take a 2-0, first-inning lead against Derek Holland.
But that was the extent of the offense against the left-hander, who responded by issuing only a pair of fourth-inning walks from that point through the fifth.
The Giants halved the Brewers' lead in the fourth when Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt each singled and moved into scoring position on an Anderson wild pitch, and Longoria scored on a Chris Shaw groundout.
San Francisco tied it in the fifth on a first-pitch homer to right by No. 8 hitter Alen Hanson. It was the 29th of the season allowed by Anderson, tops in the National League and a new career high.
Anderson went five innings for the third consecutive start, allowing five hits and a walk with five strikeouts over 74 pitches.
Josh Hader (5-1) took over for Anderson and struck out five of the seven batters he faced.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
KEEP IT GOING: Yelich returned to the lineup and drew a walk from Holland in his third plate appearance, extending his streak of reaching base to 23 consecutive games. That's longest in the National League, with Alex Bregman's 33-game streak for Houston the only one longer in the major leagues.
WELCOME BACK: Former Brewer fan favorite Will Smith returned to Miller Park for the first time since being traded to the Giants on Aug. 1, 2016. Smith, who missed all of last year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, is 2-2 with a 1.76 earned run average in 47 games.
LOOKING AHEAD: Manager Craig Counsell laid out the rotation for the Brewers' series Monday through Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Wade Miley will start Monday, Jhoulys Chacín on Tuesday and Anderson on Wednesday.
REST UP: For the fourth consecutive time and seventh time in his last nine outings, Anderson was pitching on more than the usual four days of rest afforded to starters.
“I think the difficult thing about this sometimes is there’s no formula that says you’re going to be better if you get rest. It’s sometimes hard to diagnose," Counsell said.
IN A PINCH: The Brewers entered Friday with a major-league-leading eight pinch-hit homers, which ties a single-season franchise high set in 2002 and matched last season. Granderson hit the eighth Wednesday against the Cubs.
RECORD
This year: 80-62 Last year: 74-68
ATTENDANCE
Friday: 30,916
This year: 2,437,689 (34,824 avg.) Last year: 2,181,529 (31,165 avg.)
COMING UP
Saturday: Brewers vs. Giants, 6:10 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Gio Gonzalez (7-11, 4.57) vs. San Francisco RHP Chris Stratton (9-8, 4.90). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.