Milwaukee @ San Francisco preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 8, 2010 ) San Francisco 9, Milwaukee 3

The San Francisco Giants have finally taken over sole possession of first place ahead of the San Diego Padres. The next trick is remaining there.

The Giants have a half-game lead over San Diego in the National League West as they enter Friday’s opener of a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers at AT&T Park.

San Francisco trailed San Diego by 6 1/2 games on August 25 before the Padres lost 10 straight games to bring the Giants back into the thick of the division race.

But when the Padres lost in St. Louis on Thursday and the San Francisco routed the Dodgers 10-2, the Giants moved ahead of San Diego. It is the first time the Giants have been in first place since May 6.

San Francisco had 15 hits, including eight for extra bases in Thursday’s game against Los Angeles. Aubrey Huff, Buster Posey and Joe Guillen all homered while Huff and Edgar Renteria hit triples as well.

The scoring splurge was stunning because the two teams had combined for a total of four runs over the first two games of the series. In fact, the Giants scored more runs Thursday than they had totalled (nine) over their previous five games.

Madison Bumgarner would enjoy getting similar run support against the Brewers on Friday. However, the rookie left-hander didn’t need much offense in his lone career start against Milwaukee.

Bumgarner beat the Brewers and Friday starter Randy Wolf 6-1 back on July 6 when he hurled eight innings of three-hit shutout ball.

He enters this outing with a four-start winless streak but pitched superbly in the last three starts. Bumgarner is 0-1 with two no-decisions during the trio of fine-pitched games, having allowed just two runs and 13 hits in 20 1/3 innings.

Despite notching just one victory in his last nine starts, Bumgarner (5-5) has an impressive 3.28 earned-run average.

Wolf gave up five runs when he opposed Bumgarner but only one of the runs was earned. He pitched seven innings, striking out eight while allowing just four hits.

Wolf (11-11, 4.53 ERA) was superb in his last outing but lost 1-0 to the Chicago Cubs. Wolf gave up one run and four hits in eight innings.

In 17 career starts against San Francisco, Wolf is 8-5 with a 3.10 ERA.

San Francisco swept that four-game series in Milwaukee and hopes to have similar success in this weekend’s three-game series.

Though the Brewers have nothing to play for, they have a prolific offense. Milwaukee leads the National League with 169 homers, a total that ranks fourth in the majors.

Five Brewers have hit 22 or more homers – Prince Fielder (30), Corey Hart (28), Rickie Weeks (27), Ryan Braun (22) and Casey McGehee (22). McGehee has a team-high 94 RBIs and Hart has matched his career-high with 91.

Milwaukee’s issue is pitching – the Brewers have the fourth-highest ERA (4.75) in baseball.

With leadoff hitter Andres Torres (appendectomy) sidelined, Giants manager Bruce Bochy decided to put shortstop Edgar Renteria at the top of the order Thursday. The move paid off as Renteria went 4-for-5 and scored twice.