Bats break out early as Crew avoids a sweep
On paper, Sunday afternoon was shaping up to be a long one for the Milwaukee Brewers.
On the mound opposite the Brewers was San Francisco Giants starter Alex Cobb, who's been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year, taking on an offense that had scored two runs in its previous three games.
Naturally, the Brewers offense busted out of its slump. Milwaukee put seven runs up in the first two innings against Cobb, who had allowed eight runs total over his last six starts, as the Brewers started strong and hung on late for a 7-5 win at American Family Field to avoided a four-game sweep at the hands of the Giants.
Cobb shut the Brewers down over seven scoreless innings on May 6 at Oracle Park, but he was tagged from the jump the second time around.
William Contreras drove in Christian Yelich with a single before Cobb had recorded a single out, then Brian Anderson sliced a two-run double to right to raise his team-leading RBI total to 30.
In the second inning, Owen Miller plated Joey Wiemer and Yelich to continue his hot month at the plate and put Milwaukee up, 5-0.
Contreras followed with a towering blast to the bleachers in left for his fifth home run of the year.
Cobb allowed seven runs – all earned – over four innings on seven hits, four walks and one hit by pitch as his season ERA shot up from 2.17 to 3.05.
Meanwhile, opposite Cobb, Colin Rea was excellent before running into late trouble.
Rea had to escape a first inning jam with two men on, but pitching with a big lead from that point on, shifted into cruise control and kept the Giants at bay through six. He retired 16 of 17 batters at one point, beginning with a lineout off the bat of Mitch Haniger to end the first, with the lone blemish during that stretch a two-strike, two-out solo homer by Mike Yastrzemski in the third.
Rea was burned by a bad 0-2 pitch thrown to Blake Sabol in the seventh, a hanging 0-2 splitter that the Giants catcher hit for a three-run homer to draw the Giants within 7-4.
All in all, Rea has put together a pair of strong outings since returning from Triple-A and replacing the injured Wade Miley's spot in the rotation, going 111⁄3 innings allowing just four runs.
The Giants tacked on an unearned run against Joel Payamps in the seventh, but after Peter Strzelecki recorded two outs and gave up one hit in the eighth, Devin Williams worked a fourout save to ensure the Brewers would remain in first place heading into Memorial Day.