Two teams that demonstrated their strengths to one another over three nights hope to close out a four-game series on a winning note when the defensive-minded San Francisco Giants host the offensively charged Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday afternoon.
Pitching and defense were the keys for the second time in three days when Logan Webb dominated on the mound and Mike Yastrzemski and Christian Koss shined in the field in a 4-2 Giants win Wednesday night.
The hosts followed a similar script with Robbie Ray’s pitching and another error-free defensive effort in a 5-2 triumph in the series opener on Monday.
The Giants have already won seven times this season when scoring five or fewer runs.
“That’s the way we need to play in close games in our ballpark, and we’re going to play a lot of them,” San Francisco manager Bob Melvin said of the pitching-and-defense approach. “Yaz’s throw (from right field to cut down William Contreras at third base in a scoreless game) was huge and Koss made a real good play up the middle (to kill a Brewers threat) — that’s the type of defense that we need to play to win games.”
Giants right-hander Landen Roupp (2-1, 4.09 ERA) hopes to provide the pitching half of the winning formula in the series finale. The 26-year-old already has a 1-0 loss and 3-2 win to his record this season, the latter coming in his most recent start, Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels.
Roupp made his first major league start against the Brewers last September in a 3-2 home loss. He limited the visitors to two runs and five hits in five innings. Overall, he is 0-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three games, with the one start, against Milwaukee.
He is scheduled to be opposed this time by fellow second-year right-hander Tobias Myers, who will be making his big-league season debut after sustaining a strained left oblique in spring training.
Myers is expected to be activated from the injured list before the game, having gone pain-free in three minor league rehab starts in which he went 0-1 with a 2.03 ERA in 13 1/3 innings.
As with staff ace Brandon Woodruff, who is slowly working his way back from shoulder surgery, Brewers manager Pat Murphy said the team has taken a cautious approach with Myers, who was named the team’s Most Valuable Pitcher last season after going 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA as a rookie.
“We’re in April, guys. Remember,” Murphy scolded reporters who questioned the team’s extreme patience. “As bad as we’re banged up and as many injuries as we have on the pitching staff — I look at it every day — we still can’t rush (guys) back just because we have a need.”
Myers no doubt would be comforted by the type of offensive support the Brewers provided for Jose Quintana in an 11-3 win on Tuesday. Milwaukee already has scored seven or more runs in a game eight times this season.
Most of the series has been placed at the Giants’ pace. The clubs have combined for just 10 extra-base hits in the three games, with the Brewers getting two of their three home runs in the same eight-run, sixth-inning explosion on Tuesday.
Only Wilmer Flores has homered in the series for San Francisco.
–Field Level Media
