Giants 6, Brewers 4: A Loss That Feels Like a Hot Dog Sitting in Your Stomach

WP: Matt Cain (4-2)
LP: Shaun Marcum (2-3)

S: Santiago Casilla (11)

HR: Joaquin Arias (1), Buster Posey (6)

MVP: Norichika Aoki (+.128)
LVP: Shaun Marcum (-.295 pitching; +.016 hitting)

Win Expectancy Graph and Star of the Game Voting

Tonight was dollar hot dog night at Miller Park. Great concept. Probably less great, however, when you eat five or ten hotdogs and they just sit in your stomach like a rock.

Like dollar hot dogs, Brewers baseball is pretty awesome—even if it gives you a gut ache sometimes. It remains to be seen if the gut ache metaphor is going to work for the entire 2012 season or just tonight’s ball game, where the Brewers dropped their second straight to the San Francisco Giants, 6-4.

The game got off to a tough start when Shaun Marcum gave up two first inning runs, highlighted by a ground rule double by Buster Posey. The Brewers seemed poised to get at least one run back in the bottom half of the first, however, when Nori Aoki tripled to start the inning. A few pitches later, Milwaukee had two outs, no runs home and the feeling of dread started to set in, if only just a little bit. (Nyjer Morgan flew out to leftfield and Aoki was tagged out at the plate on a great throw from Melky Cabrera.) The rest of the game would go much like the first inning. Jonathan Lucroy tripled in the second inning with one out but was left stranded at third when Rickie Weeks struck out and Taylor Green flied to center.

Milwaukee collected eleven hits off Matt Cain—including seven extra base hits—but went just 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, in addition to the two runs in the first, Marcum gave up two home runs—a two-run shot to Joaquin Arias which was his first major league home run (in 331 at bats) and a two-run shot to Posey.

Before Posey’s home run, the Brewers cut the lead to 4-2 when the slumping Weeks hit a double to deep center field and scored Aramis Ramirez and Lucroy. Milwaukee made another comeback attempt in the seventh, pulling to within 6-4 when George Kottaras had a pinch-hit single and scored on Aoki’s double. Aoki scored on a Braun single. The rally ended when Ramirez struck out to end the inning. Milwaukee would get just one more base runner in the final two innings, a two-out walk in the ninth by Aoki, but Morgan grounded out to end the game.

The loss is the Brewers sixth in the last seven games and drops them to 17-26. It's gut ache inducing, but, hey, they could turn it all around tomorrow.