Brewers 3, Giants 6: Brewers get Bumgarnered

Win: Madison Bumgarner (6-2)
Loss: Matt Garza (2-7)
Save: Santiago Casilla (13)

HR: Ramirez (6), Pence (2), Duffy (3), Belt (5)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph
Boxscore

Here's a question I was asking myself during the game: Is it more frustrating to see the Brewers constantly fall behind early and basically know they are going to lose early on, or it is more frustrating if the Brewers stay in the game for a while and actually make a game out of it, only to lose later on in a close game?

The latter option provides the most excitement, but also keeps giving you this sense of hope that, you know, maybe they'll pull this one out, and get a win. If they're losing close games late, it's easy to chalk it up to bad luck that they keep losing and that maybe they can turn it around and then they keep losing and that's so annoying.

The former option takes all the excitement out of watching. You tune in, and you're all gung-ho to watch the game, then the Brewers fall behind by a handful of runs early and then what? For me, I usually leave the game on out of a sense of...duty, I guess? But I'm rooting for a quick end so I can just move on to other things, or watch something more interesting.

I think the losing-late thing is more frustrating in the long run, but the losing-early is more frustrating in the short-run and also eats at you every single day. They both stink, though -- neither option is a good one.

Anyway, today was one of those days where the Brewers fell behind early and couldn't come back. The Giants got five runs in the first four innings off Matt Garza, including a solo Hunter Pence homer in the first and a Matt Duffy two-run shot in the fourth. Garza finished after five innings having given up eight hits and three walks while striking out seven.

An Aramis Ramirez homer in the fourth gave the Brewers their first hit of the day against Madison Bumgarner. Milwaukee had a chance to do some strong damage in the sixth when Carlos Gomez led off with a walk, was followed by a Khris Davis single, then scored on a Ryan Braun double. That cut the lead to 5-2 with runners on second and third with no outs. A sac fly brought in a second run before a pop out and a spectacular grab by Brandon Crawford on a Hector Gomez liner ended the threat. The Giants got one more run the next inning when Brandon Belt homered and that was pretty much that. The Brewers had a small rally in the ninth, but Carlos Gomez flew out to right to end the game.

Last year, the Brewers swept the defending World Series champion on the road. This year, the Brewers might be swept by the defending World Series champion at home. The Brewers and Giants will play one more tomorrow with first pitch slated for 12:40 CT.

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