Win: Santiago Casilla (5-2)
Loss: John Axford (5-5)
Save: Sergio Romo (27)
HR: Juan Francisco (15)
MVP: Juan Francisco (.329)
LVP: Rickie Weeks (-.255)
Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph
Boxscore
The Brewers scored two earned runs tonight. The Giants only scored one. Unfortunately, the Giants also scored three unearned runs and beat the Brewers 4-2 in a game mired by another poor performance from the Brewers defense.
Tyler Thornburg used 102 pitches over six innings to hold the Giants to just one run. The Giants were able to score their lone run off Thornburg in the bottom of the fourth on an errant throw from Juan Francisco. With men on 1st and 2nd and only one out, Thornburg was able to get Gregor Blanco to ground to Francisco for what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Francisco's throw was low to Jean Segura and allowed Brandon Belt to score from second.
For the Giants, Gaudin was able to effectively shut the Brewers down until the seventh inning. Before the seventh, the only runner Gaudin allowed past second base was Scooter Gennett, who tripled to right center in the third only to be caught in a rundown on a failed squeeze attempt.
Jonathan Lucroy started off the seventh inning with a double to left center. After a flyout from Carlos Gomez, Gaudin walked Caleb Gindl and was removed from the game. The very next batter Juan Francisco hit a ball about 415 feet to right center that bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double scoring only one run to tie the game. After Jeff Bianchi walked to load the bases, pinch hitter Rickie Weeks grounded into a double play. Weeks appeared to beat the ball to the bag, but first base umpire Fieldin Culbreth didn't see it that way.
Trouble for the Brewers started immediately in the bottom of the eighth inning. John Axford walked the very first batter of the inning, Hunter Pence. After a flyout from Buster Posey, Axford started Pablo Sandoval off with three straight balls before Lucroy called for an intentional walk on his fourth pitch. Axford threw his next pitch to the right of Lucroy, which allowed Pence to move up to third.
Roenicke removed Axford in favor of Michael Gonzalez, who also walked his very first batter Brandon Belt to load the bases with only one out. Pinch hitter Jeff Francoeur singled to left to give the Giants a one-run lead. After a pop out to Lucroy, Gonzalez got a groundball to third base that went under Bianchi's glove and scored two runs to give the Giants a 4-1 lead.
The Brewers were able to get a run back on an opposite field home run to left center from Juan Francisco in the top of the ninth inning, but that would be the only run the Brewers would get off of Sergio Romo.
The Brewers will face the Giants again tomorrow night in the second game of their four game series. Wily Peralta will take the mound for the Brewers against Matt Cain for the Giants. Cain struggled in July with a 8.40 ERA, but was impressive in his one August start, giving up only one run in eight innings on August 1 against Philadelphia. First pitch is scheduled for 9:15 p.m.