MILWAUKEE — It was a frustrating evening to be a pitcher Tuesday at American Family Field.
The two starters, Logan Webb and Tobias Myers, had been about as good as it gets dating back to various points on the calendar, but both were out the game by the end of the sixth inning as the Giants and Brewers traded home runs in the opening salvo of their three-game series.
Mike Yastrzemski’s two-run blast to right field in the seventh was the Giants’ third of the night — the fifth by both sides — and proved to be decisive in a much-needed 5-4 win to avoid falling back under .500. It was the Giants’ fourth straight one-run game after dropping two of three of the variety over the weekend in Seattle.
Six innings earlier, Webb removed his cap and wiped his brow after his 14th pitch to William Contreras landed in foul territory, just beyond the reach of first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., then put the Brewers designated hitter on-base with his 15th pitch of the plate appearance. He shouted an expletive into his glove that was audible in the press box when he finally returned to the dugout after exhausting 33 pitches to record his first three outs of the night.
The Giants’ workhorse at the top of their rotation understood the mission — to pitch as deep as possible after they didn’t get more than four innings from their starters all weekend in Seattle — and his frustration grew with each putaway pitch that didn’t get the job done.
Even more enraging than losing a batter on the 15th pitch has to be balking a run into scoring position, which is how the Giants opened a 1-0 lead in the third inning against Myers, who entered the game with the majors’ lowest ERA since June 1 but allowed three runs for only the second time in 14 starts over that span.
After Grant McCray singled and stole second, Myers was called for a balk when his cleat appeared to get stuck during his delivery. That put McCray in position to score on a groundout from Wade, and the Giants tacked on two more against him with solo shots from McCray and Matt Chapman.
McCray’s 422-foot blast landed midway up the second deck in right field and immediately followed a leaping catch by center fielder Blake Perkins that robbed Thairo Estrada of a go-ahead home run. Instead, it was the Giants’ rookie center fielder who gave them a brief 3-2 advantage in the fifth, but they required a third homer from Yastrzemski to take the lead for good once both starters had left the game.
After falling behind 0-2 against reliever Joel Payamps in the seventh inning, Yastrzemski laid off two offspeed offerings outside the strike zone and then drove a 2-2 fastball into the right-field seats for a two-run shot that flipped the score to a 5-4 San Francisco advantage.
Webb lasted only two batters into the sixth and departed the game after serving up his second homer, allowing the Brewers to take a 4-3 lead.
It was Webb’s shortest start since July 25 in Los Angeles, also the last time he allowed more than three runs. In five starts since, he owned a 0.96 ERA, the best mark in the majors over than span, and had gone at least seven in four of those outings.
His homerless streak dated back even further — to July 20, a league-leading stretch of 43⅓ innings entering the night — but he served up a pair of gargantuan blasts to Jackson Chourio and Willy Adames. Webb entered the game with one of the lowest home run rates in the majors and hadn’t allowed multiple any of his starts this season.
Chourio, the Brewers’ rookie left fielder, took out a piece of the center field scoreboard with his 449-foot blast that opened a 2-1 lead in the third inning. And Adames squared up his two-run shot in the fifth even harder — at 110.8 mph vs. Chourio’s 109.7 reading — flipping his bat as he watched the ball travel an estimated 435 feet over the Brewers’ bullpen in left-center field.
The Giants’ bullpen, meanwhile, answered the call of duty despite taking on a heavy workload in three tight, high-leverage games over the weekend.
In his new non-closing role, Camilo Doval was called on to clean up Webb’s mess in the sixth and worked himself into and out of his own sticky situation with a pair of walks but also a pair of punchouts. Tyler Rogers got the final out of the seventh and pitched around a leadoff single in the eighth.
And Ryan Walker recorded his fourth save without drama after pitching three innings over their first two games against the Mariners.
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Notable
The Giants were one of three teams to designate Myers for assignment in 2022 before he latched on with the Brewers, where he has been one of the majors’ most effective starters in the second half. In his three-week stint with the Sacramento River Cats, he crossed paths with Heliot Ramos and Sean Hjelle.
Webb’s 15-pitch battle with Conteras in the first inning was one of the longest of the season. The Twins’ Manuel Margot worked a 16-pitch plate appearance against the Rangers’ Andrew Heaney on Aug. 16, which MLB.com said surpassed a 15-pitch at-bat from Nick Castellanos on Aug. 4 for the longest of the season.
Up next
LHP Kyle Harrison (7-5, 4.00) takes the ball against RHP Freddy Peralta (8-7, 3.86) in the second game of the series. With a couple of recent off days and Harrison already at a career-high in innings (117), the Giants opted to give the 23-year-old rookie nine days between starts. First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 p.m. PT.
