San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: A Split in Milwaukee
The San Francisco Giants found a way to split a four-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers, so here are three positives and three negatives from the series.
3 UP
1 – No Free Passes From Shark
In the series opener on Monday night, Jeff Samardzija continued a run of tremendous starts. Over 7.2 innings in Milwaukee, the big righty held the Brewers to six hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out 10. He didn’t allow a walk either, making it his second outing of the season in which he punch out 10 or more batters while not walking anyone.
Since the start of May, Samardzija has made seven starts and has shown impeccable command. Over 48.1 innings in those seven starts, he has punched out 59 opponents while walking just one. His ERA is 2.98 during this incredible stretch. On the season, Samardzija owns an NL-leading 8.55 strikeouts to walk ratio, and his 1.24 walks per nine innings is second in the league.
2 – The First Blast is the Deepest
In Philadelphia to open this roadtrip, rookie outfielder Austin Slater collected the first base hit of his career, sneaking a single up the middle to drive in a run. On Thursday, Slater hit his first career home run and it was majestic.
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Leading off the fourth inning, Slater got a high fastball from Brewers’ starter Paolo Espino, and Slater didn’t miss. He got every piece of the ball, scorching it off the bat with a 111 mile-per-hour exit velocity. It was a line drive shot that easily cleared the fence in center field, colliding with the bottom part of the scoreboard. Statcast estimated the blast would have travelled 461 feet, making it the longest home run of the season by a Giant, surpassing Brandon Belt‘s 456″ shot in Colorado on April 21st.
3 – Hill’s Happy Return
Aaron Hill‘s Giant tenure didn’t get off to a great start, but he started to make up for it in his return to Milwaukee. Playing in the park he called home in 2016, Hill had just three at-bats, but came up huge in two of them. On Monday, Hill came up in the eighth inning of a tie game with the bases loaded. Against reliever Rob Scahill, Hill scorched a double down the left field line, scoring a pair of runs to give the Giants a lead they would not look back from. That also gave Samardzija just his second win of the season, which was well-earned.
On Thursday, Hill broke another tie. In the sixth inning of a 3-3 game, Hill drove another double, and Slater, who was running on the pitch, easily scored from first. This wouldn’t go down as a game-winner, as the Giants needed a 10th inning to win the game, but it was another big hit from a player that didn’t have many hits at all in his first two months with the team.