Field Level Media
Jul 28, 2018
Jhoulys Chacin continued his brilliant month of July with seven innings of three-hit pitching Saturday night, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to a third straight win over the Giants, 7-1, in San Francisco.
Eric Thames singled, doubled and scored three times and Lorenzo Cain collected four of Milwaukee's 14 hits, helping the Brewers (61-46) put 8 1/2 games between themselves and the Giants (52-54) in the National League wild-card race.
Chacin (10-3) no-hit the Giants for five innings before allowing a leadoff homer to Nick Hundley in the sixth, though the Brewers had already built a 6-0 lead by then.
The right-hander allowed three or fewer hits for the fourth time in five starts in July, improving to 4-0 in the month. He gave up just the one run while walking one and striking out six.
The Brewers got to Johnny Cueto (3-2) for four early runs, including three in the second inning.
Thames got the uprising going with a one-out double, after which he scored the game's first run on a single by Erik Kratz.
Orlando Arcia followed with an infield single, and after Chacin sacrificed the baserunners to second and third, Christian Yelich smacked a two-run single for a 3-0 lead.
The Brewers added a fourth run off Cueto in the fourth, with Thames again starting things with a one-out single. He eventually scored on a two-out single by Arcia.
Cueto was pulled after four innings, having allowed four runs and eight hits. He neither walked nor struck out a batter.
Yelich led off the fifth inning with a home run, his 15th of the season, off Giants reliever Ty Blach.
The Brewers added another run in the inning when Mike Moustakas, acquired Friday from the Kansas City Royals, contributed a single sandwiched between hits by Cain and Jesus Aguilar, the latter driving in the run.
Thames' third run came after he stole third base in the eighth inning. He scored on a wild pitch.
Thames, Kratz, Arcia and Yelich each had two hits for the Brewers, who had won the first two games of the series 7-5 and 3-1.
Moustakas debuted at third base with a 1-for-5 outing that included a strikeout.
Hundley's homer, his ninth of the season, was one of just four hits for the Giants, who suffered their sixth loss in eight games since the All-Star break.
--Field Level Media