San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Beating the Brew Crew
The Milwaukee Brewers came to AT&T Park in the middle of the playoff hunt, but the San Francisco Giants took two out of three in their series.
3 UP
1 – Sturdy Starters
Giants’ starting pitching was at its best during the Brewers’ series. Chris Stratton opened the set, and backed up his 6.2-shutout inning, 10-strikeout performance with another fantastic outing. On the eve of his 27th birthday, the former first-round pick hurled six more shutout innings, paving the way for the team’s second shutout of the season, and the first at home.
Jeff Samardzija followed that with another strong day, holding Milwaukee to two runs over six innings. The series ended with Matt Moore on the hill, and he continued his late-season resurgence. He allowed just a run in six innings, striking out six and giving up five hits and two walks. Over his last three starts, Moore owns a 2.21 ERA and 0.984 WHIP, putting him in one of his best stretches of the season.
2 – The Late Inning Trio
It took a while, but the Giants finally have a late-inning bullpen set-up that is working. The trio of Hunter Strickland, Mark Melancon, and Sam Dyson has made life a bit easier on Bruce Bochy.
On Monday, Melancon worked a perfect eighth inning and struck out a pair before giving way to Dyson, who finished the shutout by working around a one-out walk.
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On Wednesday, Strickland entered to a 1-1 tie in the seventh with a runner on first, but retired three in a row to keep the score where it was. After the Giants took the lead in the bottom of the seventh, Melancon worked another perfect eighth, striking out two again. Dyson gave up a solo home run in the ninth, but held the Giants’ two-run lead through the final out.
3 – Crawford’s Swing
Better late than never, right? It took until the middle of August, but Brandon Crawford is finally putting his swing together. Crawford picked up four hits in 11 at-bats against the Brewers, including two doubles down the right field line and a home run to very deep right. The home run put the Giants ahead in the fifth inning on Tuesday.
Crawford is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak, matching his longest streak of the season. The last seven games of that streak came on the previous homestand, and Crawford hit .417/.482/.708 during those seven games.