Giants offense explodes in 12-9 win over Brewers

MILWAUKEE — Gary Pettis must be so confused.

Since he arrived two days ago, the Giants have looked nothing like a team that was floundering so badly it needed to bring in a new third-base coach just two months into the season.

They’ve strung together two complete, generally clean efforts in a row — an accomplishment for a team that hasn’t won more than three consecutive games in any fashion all year.

And it has come against no slouch.

Casey Schmitt slugged his 13th home run of the season on the first pitch from Brewers starter Coleman Crow and the Giants kept on hitting enough to survive a subpar start from Adrian Houser against his former team, knocking off the NL Central leaders Thursday afternoon for the second straight game, 12-9, to claim a split of the four-game set.

Catcher Eric Haase, another former Brewer, added a cherry on top of the win with a grand slam to straightaway center before an out had been recorded in the seventh.

Drew Gilbert even got redemption for the catch he missed at the wall earlier in the series, leaping for a spectacular home run robbery of Andrew Vaughn for the final out of the eighth.

Perhaps the only knocks were a throw in the dirt from Willy Adames that Rafael Devers wasn’t able to scoop and the pitching staff’s ongoing affinity for issuing bases on balls — three in 4 ⅓ innings from Houser, whose day was over after serving up a two-run shot to Jackson Chourio, plus five more from the bullpen for 28 total over the course of the series.

That forced manager Tony Vitello to turn to his closer, despite leading by five runs, after Wilkin Ramos failed to record an out and walked home a run in the ninth. Representing the tying run, David Hamilton sent a fastball from Caleb Killian to the warning track in center field but it just stayed in the park for a far more stressful final out than there should have been.

San Francisco led 3-0 after bringing nine men to the plate in the top of the first and added on with back-to-back doubles from Adames and Jung Hoo Lee that began another three-run rally in the third. That, it turned out, was merely an appetizer for a six-run seventh inning in which 11 batters came to the plate.

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It made for plenty of activity for Ron Wotus in his final game as the interim third-base coach.

When the Giants take the field Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, Pettis will be standing in the box, hoping to get as many opportunities to wave runners home.

What it means

The Giants haven’t enjoyed many games like these, let alone strung them together.

Logan Webb was hopeful his seven shutout innings in Wednesday’s 1-0 win would set the tone for the Giants to begin to flip the script. It didn’t translate to the next man up in the rotation, but maybe it was the start of something positive nonetheless.

Who’s hot

Jung Hoo Lee singled three times, doubled and scored three runs, extending his hitting streak to a new career-long 12 games. Over the course of the stretch — the longest active streak in the majors and the longest by a Giant since Dominic Smith’s 15-gamer last year — Lee is batting a remarkable 24-for-45, including five multihit efforts in seven games since returning from the IL.

Bryce Eldridge also extended his on-base streak to 11 games with an RBI single to drive in Luis Arraez in the first, then worked a walk and scored in the third and lined another single to right field on the sixth pitch of his third trip to the plate. 

Schmitt, meanwhile, set a new career-high for home runs in the 63rd game of the season and is making a strong case to represent the Giants at the All-Star Game next month.

Who’s not

Just about everyone has gotten in on the good times the past two games.

Except for Rafael Devers.

The first baseman is back in the slump that he appeared to have broken out of in May, when he slashed .306/.356/.593 with 14 doubles, tying a franchise record for the most in one month.

Since the calendar flipped to June, Devers had been 0-for-16 with eight strikeouts until he lifted a double off the right-field wall in the top of the ninth.

Still, Devers was already responsible for one of the Giants’ hardest-hit balls of the game — a 107 mph line drive that went straight into the back of third baseman Luis Rengifo’s glove.

Up next

The Giants will play their second and third matinees in a row to begin a three-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, then face a quick turnaround following a 5:30 p.m. start on Sunday Night Baseball before beginning a homestand the next evening.

Robbie Ray will be seeking to complete at least five innings for the first time since May 8 when he takes the mound in the series opener Friday with first pitch set for 11:20 a.m. PT.

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