Chris Carter's HR puts MIL on top: Brewers 4, Giants 3

(Ed. Note: Thanks to community member Eddiemathews for his excellent game recap. Eddie and a few others will be helping us this season with game recaps and perhaps other projects. So welcome them to the team!)

The Brewers began the hot streak that we all knew was coming by converting 7 walks and 9 hits into 4 runs - enough to top the Giants at Miller Park today.  Converting 4 of 16 base runners isn't good enough, but that will come.

Taylor Jungmann turned in 5 solid innings, throwing only 80 pitches.  BA worried that there might be something wrong, but it seemed that Jungmann lost some location in the 4th and 5th, walking 2 and going to 3 balls on two other hitters.  He was aided by Brandon Belt's second caught stealing (on appeal) in as many games, and the rare 5-6-4 double play on a Jeff Samardzija bunt attempt.

Chris Capuano (with his millennial beard) allowed a lead-off triple in the sixth to Angel Pagan (who also doubled), and Pagan scored on a sac fly from Buster Posey off of Blaine Boyer.  But Boyer, Tyler Thornburg, Michael Blazek, and Jeremy Jeffress combined to shut out the Giants the rest of the way.  Jeffress earned his first save in five years with a very good ninth.

The Giants scored what should have been an unearned run in the first (Aaron Hill allowed a Hunter Pence groundball one step to his left to get past him for an RBI single; it should have been an error).  Hill immediately redeemed himself with an over the shoulder catch on a pop-up down the thirdbase line, whirling and making a perfect throw to Luc to easily catch Posey at the plate.  A long homer to left center by Matt Duffy in the second accounted for the Giants other run.

Brewer hitters showed great patience at the plate with the aforementioned seven walks.  Domingo Santana and Scooter Gennett both had two as the first two hitters in the line-up, and both scored a run after walking.  A third run came from Taylor Jungmann, who continued to contribute at the plate after hitting .270 last year.  Sunday drove him in with a single to right center in the second.  Braun plated Sunday in the first, also on a single to right center.

Chris Carter provide 2 runs with what looked like warm-up swings.  The first took an inside fastball from Samardzija into the Giants bullpen in right center for his first Brewer homer, giving the Brewers their first lead of the game in the third.  In the seventh, with runners at second and third after a passed ball and a Lucroy stirkeout, he one-handed a pitch from sidewinder Cory Giarrin into rightcenter, plating Scooter with the winning run.

Thank goodness for Miller Park.  This would have been a miserable three game set in an open stadium.

Hey!  Gogo is coming to town this weekend!  Time for a three game sweep!

NEXT GAME:

Friday, April 8th - 7:10 pm CT: Brewers vs Astros