Giants 8, Brewers 5: Rough inning by Junior Guerra sets bad early tone

SAN FRANCISCO -- An early loss of control by Junior Guerra cost the Milwaukee Brewers a chance at a rare four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

Guerra walked the bases loaded in the third, Buster Posey followed by clearing them with a double and the Brewers trailed the rest of the way in an eventual 8-5 loss Sunday afternoon.

The Giants scored four times in the third inning against Guerra and three more times in the fifth against Matt Albers, and that was enough to prevent Milwaukee's first sweep in San Francisco since 2008.

"In advance, three out of four on the road is good, for sure," manager Craig Counsell said. "We got out to an early lead today and the Junior inning was just a weird inning. But they capitalized on it."

Ryan Braun, Hernán Pérez and Travis Shaw all homered for the Brewers, who collected 11 hits.

Things were looking good early for Milwaukee, which saw Christian Yelich extend his hitting streak to 13 games with a first-inning single and then score on a two-run homer to right by Braun -- his first since July 1.

Guerra held that lead for two innings, facing the minimum, before totally losing his command in the third.

BOX SCORE:Giants 8, Brewers 5

NOTES:Moustakas may see time at second base

MLB:Live scoreboard, box scores, standings, stats

After getting Alen Hanson to ground out, Guerra walked the bases loaded. The most egregious sequence was the four-pitch free pass issued to opposing starter Andrew Suárez, who was squared around to bunt the entire at-bat.

Posey then made Guerra pay for his wildness, hammering a double to the gap in left-center to clear the bases. Brandon Crawford followed with a broken-bat single, then Evan Longoria sent a sacrifice fly to center to score Posey and up San Francisco's lead to 4-2.

"It definitely was (weird)," Guerra said. "I felt good out there. I felt like I could go all nine easily. Those walks that inning, everything turned around. I couldn’t get ahead of guys, I couldn’t throw the first pitch for strikes and the third inning just went upside-down."

Guerra (6-7) stuck out the side in the fourth, but not before surrendering a homer to Gorkys Hernández that made it 5-2. He finished his day after allowing five hits, five runs (all earned) and three walks with five strikeouts.

"He appeared to be pitching well and throwing the ball well...and gave kind of a free at-bat to their pitcher and we ended up loading the bases for their best hitter," Counsell said. "You just put yourself in trouble, and he came through.

"It was a strange kind of sequence and he lost the strike zone, clearly."

The Brewers got a run back in the fifth when Orlando Arcia drew a leadoff walk, went to third on a pinch-hit single by Eric Thames and scored on a groundout by Lorenzo Cain.

But just as quickly the Giants tacked two more runs onto their lead against Albers, who was pitching for the Brewers for the first time since June 11.

Posey greeted him with a single, and two batters later Longoria worked a 10-pitch walk to put two on for Pablo Sandoval. He capped a nine-pitch at-bat by tripling down the right-field line to chase Albers after a one-third-inning outing.

Steven Duggar then greeted Dan Jennings with a run-scoring sacrifice fly to put the Giants up, 8-3.

"They just fouled off a whole bunch of pitches and made him throw seven, eight, nine strikes in some at-bats," Counsell said. "They gave him tough at-bats. He did get ahead on some guys; they just put up some good at-bats against him and Sandoval eventually got a big hit down the line."

Pérez hit a solo homer in the sixth and Shaw added another in the seventh -- the first of the pinch-hit variety in his career -- but the Brewers could draw no closer.

Milwaukee now heads to Los Angeles for another four-game series -- this one against the Dodgers, who will have Manny Machado making his home debut with the trading deadline looming Tuesday afternoon as well.

“This has historically been a really tough place to come in as a road team and even win a series at all, so I’m proud of the fact we won the series," Braun said of taking three of four from the Giants.

"When we went up in the first inning, certainly you’re thinking about making it a sweep. But winning a series here is an accomplishment in itself. We’re playing good baseball. Hopefully we go to L.A. and do more of the same.”

FIVE TAKEAWAYS

PAYING HIS RESPECTS: It isn't often that a major-league manager misses a game, but it happened Sunday when the Giants' Bruce Bochy handed the reins to bench coach Hensley Meulens so he could travel to Cooperstown to be in attendance for Trevor Hoffman's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bochy managed Hoffman -- also a former Brewer -- for 12 years with the San Diego Padres. Interestingly, Bochy was credited with his 1,906th career victory to pass Casey Stengel for 11th on the all-time list despite not being in attendance.

SPEAKING OF HOFFMAN: Brewers manager Craig Counsell was a teammate of Hoffman's in Milwaukee in 2009-'10, and the former closer is one of his favorites.

"We were lucky in Milwaukee to have Trevor for two years and having him impact the franchise," Counsell said. "I was fortunate to have a friendship with him, and my family with his family. You feel lucky and fortunate and blessed to be around people like that. I’m hoping to get to see him talk today. I spent some time with him this spring, and the speech is really interesting when you start to think about it because you have 15 minutes to sum up your baseball life and thank everybody. It’s not easy to do. It’s a daunting task – and in front of 50,000 people."

TOPPING THE CHARTS: Yelich finished the day tied with Atlanta's Nick Markakis for the National League lead in hitting at .320, with former Brewer Scooter Gennett right behind at .319.

NOT NICE: Cain earned the ire of third-base coach Ed Sedar during his fifth-inning at-bat by smoking a ball down the line that hit Sedar in the back. Sedar crossed his arms and glared at Cain, while Arcia, stationed at third base, laughed.

PEACE OF MIND: Zach Davies was happy with his 2 1/3-inning minor-league rehab start with Class A Wisconsin on Friday. He has two more scheduled, both with Class AAA Colorado Springs.

"Everything was good," Davies said. "Stuff was kind of where I wanted it to be, surprisingly, after so much time off and in the first game. The back is going to be sore and tight probably for the rest of the year.

"It's just one of those things I'm going to have to manage."

RECORD

This year: 61-47

Last year: 56-52

COMING UP

Monday: Brewers at Dodgers, 9:10 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Freddy Peralta (4-2, 3.74) vs. Los Angeles RHP Kenta Maeda (7-5, 3.27). TV: FS Wisconsin/ESPN. Radio: AM-620.