SAN FRANCISCO — If it wasn’t already apparent, the Brewers made it abundantly clear which of the two teams at AT&T Park this week could be playing into October. The visiting Brewers (30-36) crumbled for four errors on Wednesday afternoon, allowing the Giants (41-26) to score eight runs in two innings to sweep their fifth series of the season.
Johnny Cueto (10-1, 2.10) lowered his ERA over seven innings of one-run ball, and became the fourth 10-game winner in the National League. Here’s the skinny on Wednesday afternoon baseball.
The big moment
Take your pick from any of the action in the third or fourth innings, but this was the Giants’ first big swing, courtesy of Buster Posey. He finished the day 2-for-4 with a couple RBI, one of five Giants with multiple hits in the series finale.
At the plate
After leaving 12 runners on base in five innings Tuesday night, the Giants must’ve felt they needed to make amends after scoring only three runs. They nearly tripled that offensive output in two innings on Wednesday.
In sending 17 hitters to the plate between the third and fourth innings, the Giants ambushed eight runs on eight hits, two walks and three Milwaukee errors. Only two of those hits went for extra bases, but the Giants just kept the line moving. Gregor Blanco and Posey collected hits in both the third and fourth innings, with Blanco breaking through a 3-for-30 slump and Posey coming off his first four-hit game of the season.
The Giants offense was contained to those two innings before Ramiro Peña lined his first hit as a Giant to push across two more runs in the eighth. Blanco, Joe Panik, Matt Duffy and Angel Pagan all finished with three-hit games in the 16-hit barrage.
On the mound
Cueto hasn’t stopped beating the Brewers since August 2012, the last time he lost a game started against his old division rivals. He’s undefeated in his eight starts since against his Milwaukee, and continued his dominant first-half with seven innings of one-run ball.
Much like Madison Bumgarner on Tuesday, Cueto faced the minimum through three innings. That only happened because Jonathan Villar singled to leadoff the game, but was picked off by Cueto, who eliminated any need for a rundown play.
Who's got it? Johnny's got it. pic.twitter.com/uCDuPwwRH1
— Connor Grossman (@connorgrossman) June 15, 2016
Cueto scattered seven hits, his most in the last six starts, but escaped almost every jam he entered. Cueto went through the Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Hernan Perez after allowing a couple baserunners in the sixth inning, and struck out Villar to end his afternoon with two runners on in the seventh inning.
Having made only 96 pitches, Cueto lowered his league-leading pitches per start from 106.7 to a lowly 105.9.
In the ‘pen
Chris Stratton relieved Cueto in the eighth inning, making his second appearance at AT&T Park after his first didn’t go so well. He worked around a base hit and a walk to pitch a scoreless frame in 20 pitches. He emerged again for the ninth, pitching another clean inning to cement the sweep.
On deck
The Giants are off on Thursday before beginning a seven-game road trip to play the Rays and Pirates. Jeff Samardzija (7-4, 3.36 ERA) will pitch Friday against Chris Archer (4-7, 4.61 ERA), but the rotation is up in the air after that. Without detailing all the specifics, it’s going to be either Madison Bumgarner or Albert Suarez starting on Saturday.
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