SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
In some cultures it is extremely rude for a guest not to accept a gift. Whatever finishing school the Giants attended must have pressed that point, because they are feasting on the bounty supplied by the Brewers.
For the second night in a row, the Giants used catastrophic errors by different Milwaukee shortstops as a cudgel to pound the hosts.
However, it would slight Madison Bumgarner to focus too squarely on a Milwaukee mistake in the telling of Tuesday night's 6-1 victory, even if it led five of the runs, because this was Bumgarner's first major-league win and he dominated a good lineup to achieve it.
The 20-year-old lefty struck out five and allowed three singles in eight shutout innings. One of those, a Rickie Weeks infield hit, should have been an out. He also collected his first big-league RBI.
Bumgarner passed his first test by pitching scoreless ball in the first two innings. Of the eight runs he surrendered in his first two games, six came in the first and second innings. Bumgarner did walk three in the first three innings at Miller Park but coasted from there, retiring 17 of his last 19 hitters to end a 115-pitch night.
The Giants won consecutive games for the first time since a four-game winning streak June 11-14 and evened their record on the season's longest trip to 3-3. They also beat left-hander Randy Wolf for the first time since April, 2007.
Yet again, the Giants posted a crooked number after a Brewers shortstop botched what would have been an inning-ending double play. The Giants have scored 12 runs in the series, 11 that should not have been.
On Monday, youngster Alcides Escobar's misplay helped the Giants. On Tuesday it was wily old Craig Counsell who grabbed Pablo Sandoval's grounder with two on and one out in the sixth inning of a scoreless game and threw it into right field, allowing a pair of runs to score and leading to a five-run inning.
Travis Ishikawa added a two-run single, his first hit against a left-hander this season, and Bumgarner singled home the final run. The Giants batted around and turned a scoreless game into a 5-0 windfall.
The Giants did not present a very dangerous lineup to face Wolf, particularly with Juan Uribe (finger sprain) and Aubrey Huff (resting), who owned 95 of the team's 322 RBIs, sitting out. Thus, the bounty of Brewer gifts was welcome.
For starters, Wolf walked Andres Torres and Freddy Sanchez to start the sixth. After striking out Buster Posey on three pitches, Torres and Sanchez executed a double-steal, Torres' 17th of the year and Sanchez's first. The Brewers then walked Pat Burrell intentionally to load the bases for Sandoval.
That move was perfect up to the moment when Counsell gloved Sandoval's double-play ball and chucked it wide of second base, bringing Torres and Sanchez home.
Wolf intentionally walked Aaron Rowand to face Travis Ishikawa, which was a good move because Ishikawa had struck out in the only three at-bats he had in 2010 against left-handers - until the moment Ishikawa lined a single off the glove of a leaping Weeks into right field to score Rowand and Sandoval.
Bumgarner's single to right, which scored Rowand, was well-struck.
Posey went 1-for-3 with a sacrifice fly. He batted third for the second time this season and was greeted in the first inning by a Wolf fastball that drilled him on the lower left leg.
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