By Jeremy Harness

The good news that came out of Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers is that center fielder Angel Pagan made his return to the lineup and looked good doing it.

The leadoff man collected two hits, including a bloop single into shallow right to start the game, as well as making a very nice sliding catch on the warning track in right center.

Not too shabby for a guy who has missed a total of 44 games this season because of a back injury.

Now with the bad news; the Giants dropped the rubber match of a three-game series by virtue of a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Brewers at Miller Park, while the division-leading Dodgers added one more game to their advantage over the second-place Giants.

As he did last week in New York, starter Jake Peavy pitched brilliantly but got no run support from his teammates (the one run the Giants mustered was scored by Peavy himself).

In the end, Peavy remained winless as a Giant and saw his overall season mark go to 1-12. That’s the type of thing that can happen when you have the worst run support in the majors, which Peavy has. He surrendered three runs on nine hits, walking three and striking out another three.

The Brewers got on the board first in the bottom of the first, when admitted PED user Ryan Braun doubled into the gap in right-center to score Jonathan Lucroy.

After the Giants tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth, Milwaukee scored two runs in the sixth, as Khris Davis and Mark Reynolds each drove in runs to effectively put the game away.

The Giants could not get anything going against Brewers starter Wily Peralta (14-6), which didn’t bode well for Peavy at all.

The Giants will head to Kansas City for a three-game series against the Royals, who are now in the hunt for the American League Central crown, something that has been completely out of the picture for decades until now.

Madison Bumgarner will attempt to get the Giants back on the right track when he takes the ball Friday against Kansas City lefty Jason Vargas.