The Milwaukee Brewers William Contreras tries on the cheese hat in exchange for the batting helmet after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants at American Family Park in Milwaukee on Sun May 28, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

Sunday afternoon the San Francisco Giants (27-25) wrapped up their four game series with the Milwaukee Brewers (27-25) and couldn’t get the sweep after winning the first three games in this stint. The Brewers William Contreras turned it up a notch on San Francisco with a home run and three RBIs for the two run 7-5 final.

As the Giants have seen so often, sweeps are few and far between. It’s just not easy to sweep a team, especially a team that has the strengths that Milwaukee has.

We could see the Brewers resolve from the get- go. They were on a roll from the first inning scoring early and often. Contreras got the Milwaukee party started with a single that drove Christian Yelich home for the 1-0 lead. Brian Anderson doubled Owen Miller and Contreras home now leading 3-0.

Milwaukee had an even more proficient second inning. An Owen Miller single got both Joey Wiemer and Christian Yelich home. A Contreras home run with Miller onboard gave the Brewers a 7-0 lead after only two innings.

San Francisco finally got on the board in the third inning when Mike Yastrzemski hit a solo home run ending any shut-out possibility for pitcher Colin Rea. This was the Giants 73rd home run this season.

It was a very disappointing start for S.F. pitcher Alex Cobb. He was giving up too many two strike hits. So much of his early performance was very uncharacteristic of Cobb. A lot was going wrong for him in the early innings. He only went four innings allowing seven hits and seven runs with five strikeouts.

Tristan Beck would relieve him in the fifth inning. Beck had a great start retiring the first three Brewers he faced. He had had another perfect inning in the sixth. Since entering the game he retired nine in a row through three innings. Ryan Walker would close for San Francisco.

Blake Sabol hit the Giants 74th home run of the season in the seventh inning with two runners onboard to cut the Brewer lead to 7-4. San Francisco was back in this game. Brett Wisely smoked one that was caught up against the wall but it was enough for Brandon Crawford to score and the Giants made this game even closer 7-5.

With two outs in the eighth inning the Brewers brought in closer Devin Williams with an unbelievable .59 ERA.

The Giants had a great late game surge but it was the Brewers first and second innings that decided this game. The Giants had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning with two outs and Wilmer Flores at bat. He struck out. It was a tough day for San Francisco when little was going right early.

The Giants will hop on a plane and head home for an afternoon game Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three game series before having a day off Thursday. Starters for Pittsburgh Rich Hill (4-4 ERA 4.27) for San Francisco Anthony DeScalfani (3-4 ERA 3.43) first pitch 2:05 pm PT for the holiday special.