To be frank, a bad start
Giants pound Brewers, 12-3, in home opener
On the field, the Brewers struggled Monday. Off the field, there were all the makings of a great opening day.
Team owner Mark Attanasio opened the lots early to let tailgaters fire up grills. A sellout crowd jammed Miller Park, filled the Brewers Team Store, cheered the hot dog to a Sausage Race victory. And then the Giants hit three homers in a row in the eighth inning.
Well, we all knew it was going to be a rebuilding year. The Brewers play again Tuesday night . . . and yes, hope springs eternal.
Wily Peralta’s first opening-day start wound up being one to forget — for both him and the Milwaukee Brewers.
The right-hander lasted only four innings and the bullpen followed by allowing four home runs as the Brewers officially opened their rebuild by getting pummeled by the San Francisco Giants, 12-3, in front of a sellout crowd of 44,318 at Miller Park.
Peralta was touched up for six hits, five runs (four earned) and two walks to go along with a pair of strikeouts. Even still, he departed trailing by only two runs before the late implosion by Milwaukee’s relievers. The Brewers have now allowed their opponents double-digit runs in losing their home opener for two consecutive seasons. They were shut out, 10-0, by the Colorado Rockies last year.
“That’s a great team; they’re great hitters,” Peralta said. “That’s a tough game for me and for the team today, but we have to move forward. We have to come tomorrow and even the series and then try to win the series.”
Contrast Milwaukee’s pitching performance to that of the Giants behind flu-stricken ace Madison Bumgarner, who gutted out five innings. He overcame a shaky first few frames to limit the Brewers to three runs despite allowing five hits and walking five.
San Francisco’s bullpen then
picked up Bumgarner with four scoreless innings of three-hit ball.
Milwaukee appeared poised for a big first inning against Bumgarner as four of the first five batters reached base. Bumgarner issued an uncharacteristic three walks, including one to Chris Carter with the bases loaded, but Aaron Hill ended the threat by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play and the Brewers settled for a 1-0 lead.
A Scooter Gennett error opened the door for a two-run Giants second, then Gennett’s 423-foot home run to right off Bumgarner — the first of his career against a left-hander — knotted the score at 2-2.
Peralta issued a leadoff walk in the third followed by three singles as the Giants jumped back in front to stay, 4-2. Jonathan Villar’s homer in the bottom of the third capped the Brewers’ scoring.
Peralta allowed another run in the fourth before departing after 83 pitches. His fastball velocity reached as high as 98 mph early, but he induced only four groundball outs in all, with two coming in the opening frame.
When Craig Counsell named Peralta his openingday starter a few weeks ago, he pointed to the 17-11 season he posted in 2014. He went 510 in an injury-marred 2015, though, and was impressive in only a couple spring starts.
“The first inning was really good stuff,” Counsell said. “They just put some good atbats against him. What they’re good at is putting the ball in play on tough pitches with two strikes. He made a couple of mistakes.”
Bumgarner, meanwhile, closed out his afternoon by striking out the Brewers’ 23-4 hitters — Villar, Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy — swinging. He threw 101 pitches in all.
No one on the Brewers’ side had an inkling Bumgarner was under the weather until after the game.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game, and we’ve all seen what he’s done in the postseason multiple times,” Braun said. “So I wouldn’t expect the flu to hold down a guy like that.”
San Francisco put the game out of reach in the fifth when Duffy hit a two-out, two-run homer to left off Carlos Torres, who was signed as a free agent on Saturday.
What remained of the crowd headed for the exits quickly in the eighth when Denard Span, Joe Panik and Buster Posey hit consecutive homers off Ariel Peña. Span finished with five RBI while Duffy had four.
“We’re going to depend on the bullpen,” Counsell said. “They’re going to have to perform.”
Braun admitted getting past the pomp and circumstance of opening day is a good thing, and that he expects the Brewers — despite their relative inexperience — will quickly move past Monday’s disappointment.
“Everything at this level obviously feels like it’s magnified a little bit,” he said. “But for everybody, I think it’s something that if you’ve played this game long enough you understand you’re going to have to be good at turning the page, whether it’s a good game or a bad game.”
With the loss, Milwaukee falls to 25-22-1 all time on opening day and 10-8 at home (4-4 at Miller Park). The team is also 9-9-1 on opening day since joining the National League in 1998.