SF Giants win another wild one to win series in Milwaukee
The day after he padded the Giants’ lead with a home run in the 11th inning, Brandon Belt gave the Giants another heroic homer to help beat the Brewers in the finale of heart-racing series between two of the best teams in baseball.
Belt tied the game with a pinch-hit, two-run home run to straight away center field in the seventh inning, and Tommy La Stella gave San Francisco the decisive lead with a pinch-hit single the next inning on the 11th pitch of his at-bat.
Both teams were playing on fumes Sunday after splitting two extra-inning contests in the first two games of the series. Of the seven games on their road trip, four went to extra innings and only one was decided by more than three runs.
“For all those reasons it was gratifying to take two of three,” said manager Gabe Kapler, who described the three-game set in Milwaukee as one of the Giants’ toughest all season. “Especially in this last game, we were a bit on fumes.”
Over their final four games of the road trip, Giants relievers threw more innings (21 2/3) than their starting pitchers (19 1/3). They were forced to add a reliever in place of a position player — John Brebbia for Thairo Estrada, optioned to Triple — for the second straight day after using eight relievers in an 11-inning win the night before.
The Giants needed a quality start from Johnny Cueto and got 5 1/3 innings while holding Milwaukee to three runs.
Called up Saturday as a bullpen reinforcement, Zack Littell gave the Giants two much-needed innings of scoreless relief and earned the save.
Littell wanted to “go out there and give those guys a day off,” he said. “They busted their ass the past five, six days with all those extra-inning games. … Really the best way to describe it is gutsy. It’s been two weeks now of just non-stop grinding games out.”
Darin Ruf gave the Giants a 1-0 lead with a first-inning home run, but they gave it back with help from a botched pick-off attempt and a wild pitch.
San Francisco trailed 4-2 when Belt stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh. Pinch-hitting in the pitcher’s slot with Lamonte Wade Jr. on second base, after he worked a leadoff walk, Belt lifted a low breaking ball from reliever Daniel Norris to tie the game at 4.
Leading off the eighth inning, Brandon Crawford blooped a ball into shallow left field and hustled into second base for a double. With right-hander Brad Boxberger on the mound, Kapler called upon Tommy La Stella to pinch-hit for right-handed-hitting Donovan Solano.
La Stella quickly fell into an 0-2 hole, but he fouled off five pitches and laid off three more out of the strike zone to work a full count. On the 11th pitch of his at-bat, La Stella laced a single up the middle to score Crawford and give the Giants a 5-4 lead.
“He also understands how to work a pitcher and not chase. I thought he was able to grind through that at bat beautifully,” Kapler said. “He just wasn’t going to lose. As tough as it gets. … Both Craw and Tommy in that situation, they understand the value of a baserunner on second versus baserunner on first.”