By Tom Haudricourt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel –
SAN FRANCISCO — With the starting pitchers featuring three Cy Young Awards between them, it was reasonable to expect a pitching duel Friday night at AT&T Park.
As so often happens in baseball, however, reason was tossed out the window. San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum struggled early and Milwaukee’s Zack Greinke crumbled later, resulting in a back-and-forth tussle.
The Brewers struck the last and decisive blow as Aramis Ramirez snapped a 4-4 tie in the seventh inning with a two-run single, one of his biggest hits since signing as a free agent, to give Milwaukee a 6-4 triumph over the Giants.
After relievers Jose Veras and Francisco Rodriguez covered the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, closer John Axford took over to keep two remarkable streaks alive. Axford converted his 49th consecutive regular-season save and the Brewers won for the 53rd time in a row when taking a lead into the eighth inning.
The Brewers took advantage of a bout of wildness by Lincecum to score three runs in the first inning, their first runs since the opener in San Diego on Monday. Lincecum, who threw only two strikes among his first 14 pitches, hit new leadoff batter Carlos Gomez with a pitch then walked Rickie Weeks.
After Corey Hart grounded into a force at second, Ramirez drew a walk to load the bases. Lincecum then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Gomez to scoot home from third base.
Alex Gonzalez struck out on a high fastball, but Jonathan Lucroy grounded a single up the middle to knock in Hart and Ramirez and make it 3-0.
Lincecum remained wild in the second inning but wiggled off the hook. Nyjer Morgan led off with a single to right and Greinke moved him up with a perfectly executed sacrifice.
Gomez struck out, but Lincecum walked Weeks and Hart to load the bases once again. Lincecum fell behind in the count, 3-1, to Ramirez but recovered to retire the Brewers’ cleanup hitter on a liner to right on a 3-2 changeup.
With that out, Lincecum quickly settled down. He put down the side in order in the next three innings before exiting for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth.
Greinke encountered no difficulty over the first four innings. Melky Cabrera’s two-out single in the first led to nothing, and a one-out walk to Brandon Belt in the second was erased on a double-play grounder by Joaquin Arias.
That spell ended in the fifth inning when the first three Giants hitters — Angel Pagan, Belt and Arias — collected singles to cut the Brewers’ lead to 3-1. After Emmanuel Burris grounded out to first, advancing the runners, San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy went for the big inning and sent Nate Schierholtz to hit for Lincecum.
Greinke struck out Schierholtz on a nasty breaking ball and had a bit of good fortune when Gregor Blanco lined out to center.
The Brewers resorted to a favorite tactic to get that run back in the sixth inning. After Lucroy tripled to right-center with one down off left-handed reliever Travis Blackley, Travis Ishikawa dropped down a suicide squeeze bunt that left the Giants with no play but first base.
But Greinke was unable to protect the 4-1 lead. Conor Gillaspie led off the bottom of the inning with a single, Cabrera tripled him in and Buster Posey followed with an RBI single to make it a one-run game with no outs.
The Brewers caught a break when Pagan beat the throw from Ramirez on a grounder to third but umpire Ed Rapuano called him out. Posey moved up on the play and advanced to third on a passed ball by Lucroy, prompting the Brewers to bring in their infield.
Belt sent a sharp grounder toward Weeks that he let get through for a run-scoring error that tied the game. That was all for Greinke, who yielded to Kameron Loe.
With two down, Rapuano showed he was an equal-opportunity umpire by blowing a call on Burris’ comebacker to Loe, calling him safe when he was out. Loe finally ended the inning by getting Ryan Theriot to ground out to third, keeping it at 4-4.
It didn’t stay tied for long. Reliever Clay Hensley took over in the seventh and allowed one-out infield hits to Norichika Aoki and Weeks. Bochy went to slider specialist Sergio Romo, who retired Hart on a fly to deep center that advanced both runners.
Romo got ahead of Ramirez, 0-1, on a slider but made a mistake with a fastball that the Brewers’ third baseman yanked into left for a two-run single.
