Burnes, bullpen lead way in tense battle
SAN FRANCISCO – Given a break when the San Francisco Giants had to scratch their scheduled starter before the game, the Milwaukee Brewers had to fight to the end to secure a tense victory Monday night.
With Corbin Burnes turning in yet another stellar start and the bullpen backing him up once again, the Brewers edged the Giants, 3-1, at Oracle Park in a battle of first-place teams.
“They played us tough in Milwaukee and we were a little shorthanded with our bullpen in that series (which the Giants won, two games to one),” Burnes said. “It was good to come out and get a win in Game 1 tonight.
“That was definitely a playoff atmosphere and something that could be foreshadowing of what we see in the postseason. It’s always good to get the first one of the series. That was definitely a big one tonight.”
In recording their 80th victory of the season, the Brewers boosted their lead to 91⁄2 games in the NL Central over the Cincinnati Reds, who lost at home to St. Louis, 3-1.
Burnes continued to state his case as one of the best pitchers this season with six dominating innings, allowing only four hits and one run with no walks and nine strikeouts. As usual, the Brewers’ stout bullpen backed him up, with Josh Hader pitching the ninth for his 28th save.
“They’re a very good baseball team,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “This is the type of game that’s played in this park. Having been here a lot, this is the kind of game you play here. You have to get hits with runners in scoring position, you have to play good defense. You have to pitch well.
“That’s what the game was tonight. We did a nice job. Corbin was excellent, our bullpen was excellent again.”
The Giants were put in scramble mode before the game when their first two scheduled starting pitchers for the series, Johnny Cueto and Alex Wood, were placed on the COVID-19 injured list. A few days earlier, second baseman Donovan Solano tested positive for the virus.
In what became a bullpen game for the Giants, left-hander José Alvarez started and surrendered two runs in 12⁄3 innings.
With one down in the first, Christian Yelich doubled down the right-field line, extending his hitting streak to nine games, with hits in 17 of 18 games. Alvarez retired Avisaíl García on a grounder to second but Omar Narváez delivered a two-out single to center to score Yelich for a 1-0 lead. Rowdy Tellez followed with a walk but the inning came to an end when Luis Urías scalded a liner right at third baseman Kris Bryant.
Jace Peterson led off the second with a walk and moved up when Jackie Bradley Jr. tapped out to Alvarez. Burnes then showed he can be a factor with the bat as well, smacking a run-scoring single to center.
Kolten Wong made it two singles in a row and Yelich grounded into a force at second, leaving runners on the corners. Right-hander Jay Jackson replaced Alvarez and prevented further damage by striking out García.
After Burnes put down the first six batters in order, with three strikeouts, Alex Dickerson opened the Giants’ third with a double into the right-field corner. After Burnes struck out Jason Vosler and reliever Jarlin García, LaMonte Wade Jr. battled for nine pitches before ripping a line drive to first that Tellez gloved for the third out.
Peterson led off the fourth with an infield hit and García balked him to second. Bradley took a called third strike and Burnes went down swinging, with Peterson thrown out trying to steal third on the pitch, a questionable strategy in any event.
In the bottom of the inning, Brandon Belt lined a one-out single to center and was still on base with two down when Brandon Crawford sent a fly ball to deep center that Bradley chased down on the warning track.
García continued his strong relief work by retiring the first two hitters in the sixth, then finally calling it a night. Right-hander Zack Littell took over and surrendered singles to Urías and Peterson – on base for the third time – before escaping when Bradley hit a 102 mph liner to centerfielder Mike Yastrzemski.
Burnes remained in control in the sixth with a 1-2-3 inning, including two strikeouts. But things changed in the seventh when Belt led off with a drive to right that got over a leaping Avisaíl García for a double.
It was García who was unable to catch a drive to the warning track by Tommy La Stella with two outs in the ninth on Aug. 7 in Milwaukee that would have closed a 2-1 victory. The Brewers lost that game, 9-6, in 11 innings but Belt’s drive was anything but routine.
“He’s seeing it pretty well against us,” Burnes said of Belt, who homered four times in the series in Milwaukee. “Tonight, I think I made a lot of good pitches against him; whenever I left one up he put the bat on it.
“Credit to him for having some tough ABs against us, not only last series but tonight. I would expect a lot of the same through the rest of this week.”
When Bryant followed with a sharp single to left, the Giants had runners on the corners with no outs and that spelled the end of Burnes’ night. Brad Boxberger took over and surrendered an RBI single to Crawford, cutting the Brewers’ lead to 2-1 and putting two on with still no outs.
Yastrzemski tapped a ball in front of the plate and Narváez pounced on it and fired to second for a force, with Urías managing to keep a foot on the bag while catching the sailing toss. With runners on the corners, Boxberger escaped by retiring Dickerson on a popup to short and pinch-hitter Darin Ruf on a liner to deep left.
“My ultimate goal there is to get out of that inning with the lead still intact,” said Boxberger, who has a 0.77 ERA over his last 24 appearances. “I don’t want to give up any in that situation, best-case scenario. But I was able to keep the lead and that’s the goal to hand it off to Devin (Williams) in the eighth with a one-run lead.”
The Brewers came back with a run in the eighth to make it a two-run game again. Avisaíl García drew a leadoff walk from Dominic Leone and was forced at second by Narváez before Tellez ripped a single to right to put runners on the corners.
Urías battled Leone for seven pitches before delivering a sacrifice fly to right to make it 3-1. Peterson followed with a booming drive to right-center that would have scored Tellez if not for bouncing over the wall for a ground-rule double. Given that break, Leone retired Bradley on a bouncer to second.
After Williams stranded a runner in the eighth, Hader worked around a leadoff double by Bryant in the ninth, throwing several fastballs in the 98-99 mph range.
“I think this is a fun place to play,” Counsell said. “There’s a really good atmosphere here. There’s good fans here who make it feel like a big game. I think Josh felt it too. The players get adrenaline too.
“Josh had some adrenaline tonight, he was feeling good so you saw an uptick in velocity.”
RECORD
Overall: 80-52 Home: 36-29 Away: 44-23
COMING UP
Wednesday: Brewers at Giants, 8:45 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Brett Anderson (4-8, 4.27) vs. San Francisco RHP Kevin Gausman (12-5, 2.49). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.