Giants lose, get outscored 49-18 in season sweep
After the Giants' 7-4 loss to Milwaukee on Sunday, Ray Durham boarded the Brewers' bus to start a new life. He truly is going to a better place, at least in 2008.
In handing Tim Lincecum his third loss of the season, the Brewers completed a six-game season sweep of the Giants that bordered on ridiculous and should make fans in San Francisco envious of their brethren in the land of cheddar. The Brewers outscored the Giants 49-18.
"It's a very, very good ballclub," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's a tough lineup. They have power. They have speed. ... They are aggressive on the bases, and that is why they are contending. You have to play your best ball to beat them, and we didn't."
Sunday's final score was charitable to the Giants. Behind left-hander Manny Parra, a Sacramento native who won his eighth straight decision, the Brewers took a 5-0 lead into the eighth inning.
Lincecum allowed a Corey Hart homer and an RBI single by Parra in the second inning. The 2-0 game became 5-0 in the seventh when Ryan Braun hit a three-run homer on Lincecum's 121st and final pitch, a not-bad inside fastball. Two-run doubles by Aaron Rowand in the eighth and Jose Castillo in the ninth proved to be window dressing.
The Giants mounted little offense against Parra with a lineup that included rookies Ivan Ochoa, Eugenio Velez and Emmanuel Burriss.
Bochy will be criticized for letting Lincecum throw 121 pitches after the whole All-Star flu issue, but Lincecum said he was fine.
"I felt I had all my usual energy back," he said. "I felt lively. I felt good. The outcome just wasn't good. They asked me if I was good to go in the seventh. I said I was. I felt I still had energy and still had stuff."
This is how it has gone for the Giants during a 4-11 July. Lincecum had his two best innings in the fifth and sixth. He started the seventh by losing a curveball that seemed to fly over Rickie Weeks' head as he ducked. Weeks said the ball hit his helmet and home-plate umpire Rob Drake bought it. J.J. Hardy then singled before Braun fought off four two-strike pitches and hit his 24th home run.
Lincecum allowed five runs to match a season high as the Giants ended a 1-8 stretch against three of the best teams in the league, the Mets, Cubs and Brewers.
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