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Milwaukee Brewers Christian Yelich gets around on the baseball for his fifth home run of the season for a grand slam in the top of the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Tue Apr 22, 2025 (AP News photo)

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Milwaukee Brewers 11 (13-11)

San Francisco Giants 3 (15-9)

Win: Jose Quintana (3-0)

Loss: Jordan Hicks (1-3)

Time: 2:48

Attendance: 28,573

By Stephen Ruderman

An eight-run top of the sixth inning did the Giants in, as Brewers smoked their way to an 11-3 win on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.

After a tough loss in Anaheim on Sunday, the Giants bounced back with a 5-2 win Monday night. Tuesday night, the Giants would try to build on that, and get back to their season-high of eight games over .500.

Before the game, Hunter Pence threw out the ceremonial first pitch to his wife, Alexis. Pence was at the ballpark for Earth Day on behalf of his organization, Healthy Planet Project, which focuses on efforts to clean the city, reduce pollution and bring awareness to Global Warming.

The Giants took the field for the second time this season in their new City Connect jerseys. Jordan Hicks took the ball following a shaky start in Philadelphia last Thursday, and he pitched a pair of scoreless innings to start his night. Meanwhile, the veteran left-hander, Jose Quintana, who pitched in five games for the Giants in 2021, threw a one, two, three bottom of the first, as well as a scoreless bottom of the second.

However, Hicks had his doldrums in the top of the third. Caleb Durbin led off the inning with a double, and Brice Turang singled him over to third. Jackson Churio grounded into a fielder’s choice to open the scoring, and after Christian Yelich doubled Churio over to third, William Contreras knocked them both in with a base-hit to left field to make it 3-0.

The Giants of course responded to the Brewer’s three runs in the bottom of the third, as David Villar led off the inning with a double. Villar got to third on a ground out by Patrick Bailey, and then scored on a broken-bat bloop single to right by Tyler Fitzgerald to put the Giants on the board.

Hicks pitched through some more trouble in the top of the fourth, and he finally threw his first one, two, three inning of the night in the top of the fifth. Quintana was back in control, as he pitched two more scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth.

Unfortunately, Hicks and the Giants just ran into a brick wall in the top of the sixth. A pair of base-hits and a wild pitch made it 4-1. Hicks then walked Garrett Mitchell, and that ended his night.

Lou Trivino was brought in, and things didn’t get any better. Trivino got Durbin to fly out for the first out of the inning, but Turang singled to right to make it 5-1. Churio was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and up came Christian Yelich. What did Yelich do? He hit a grand salami to straightaway center to turn this into a laugher.

The Brewers now led it 9-1, and they still weren’t done. Sal Frelick walked with two outs, and Jake Bauers added insult to injury with a two-run shot to right-center to make it 11-1.

As for Hicks, he gave up five earned runs in five-plus innings. Trivino ended up giving up five runs as well.

You really have to give it to the Giants. They never gave up, and in fact, they loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Unfortunately, they were unable to come through in the sixth, but they rallied again and scored runs in the seventh and eighth to make it 11-3. The Giants even rallied in the bottom of the ninth, but nothing came out of it, and the Brewers won it 11-3.

Jose Quintana, who pitched six innings got the win, and Hicks took his third loss of the young season.

The Giants fall to 15-9, and they will look to bounce back Wednesday night with their ace, Logan Webb (2-1, 2.40 ERA) on the hill. Freddy Peralta (2-1, 1.91 ERA) will take the ball for Milwaukee.

First pitch will be at 6:45 p.m., something I’m still getting used to in the Giants’ seventh season of 6:45 weeknight games.

Giants News and Notes:

Giants’ top prospect, Bryce Eldridge returned from his left wrist injury to make his 2025 debut for the Giants’ Double-A affiliate, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, who were in Akron, Ohio tonight.

In his first at-bat, Eldrige picked up right where he left off last season and the beginning of Spring Training this year, as he hit a home run to right-center.

Monday, April 21

Oracle Park San Francisco

By Lewis Rubman

Milwaukee 12-11) 020 000 000 2 6 1

San Francisco (15-8) 010 011 11x 5 8 0

Time: 2:30

Attendance: 31,758

Although your San Francisco Giants started off on their recently completed grueling ten day tour of New York, Philadelphia, and beautiful downtown Anaheim like a house on fire, they cooled down when the weather got heated up in Orange County. The Giants started their homestand on Monday night with a 5-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.

Sunday’s game, which began with Jason Verlander’s first satisfying start and ended with Ryan Walker’s sudden loss of control (with a little help from Lázaro Díaz behind the plate) to peter out with a 5-5 record for their paschal peregrination, this chilly Monday evening, in the first of a three game series against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants chose as their starter their current ace, Robbie Ray, who has a tendency to get into trouble early but right himself before the damage is irreparable.

Ray ran true to form, coughing up a couple of runs to fall behind, 2-0, but allowing the visitors only a single additional tally for the remainder of his five innings on the mound, leaving with the score knotted at two.

The runs he surrendered were earned, and they came on five hits, including ninth place batter Caleb Durbin’s two inning dinger that accounted for all of Milwaukee’s scoring. Ray threw 92 pitches in his abbreviated start; 37 of them were balls.

Ray struck out four and lowered his ERA from 4.19 to 4.07. Hayden Birdsong, originally a starter, but blossoming as a middle reliever, got the win, holding the brew crew to one hit and two walks in three frames. He, too, threw a lot of pitches, 49 (19 balls) while retiring four opponents on strikes.

He now owns a record of 1-0, 1.38). Wrapping up the victory and earning his third save on the season was Camilo Doval, trying to redeem his lost promise, and looking good, being credited with strikes on six of the seven pitches he threw in a hitless ninth.

Ray’s opposite number, the Brewers’ newly acquired Quinn Priester, Pittsburgh’s first round draft choice in 2019 and now with his third team since making his big league debut with the PIrates in 2023. From there he went to Boston in ’24 and then on to Milwaukee this March. He toed the rubber with a too good to be true mark of 1-0, 0.90 and left after four innings at a more down to earth but still outstanding 1-0, 1.93.

He, like Ray, allowed two runs, both earned. They came on four safeties and an equal number of walks. Priester was followed by a parade of five relievers over the game’s remaining four frames. They were Nick Mears, Grant Anderson, charged with the loss that dropped his numbers to 1-1,3.38.

The run came on Wilmer Flores’s 309 foot solo home run over the Hanwha Insurance sign in left center field. Jared Koenig (2/3 of an inning), Joel Payamps (1/3), and Craig Yoho (1), gave up a run apiece, except for Payams, who faced only one batter, Matt Chapman, who ended the Giants’ rally in the fifth with a fly to the warning track in dead center field.

Wilmer Flores and Tyler Fitzgerald were the only Giants to have multi-hit nights. The former hit the tie-breaking and ultimately game winning home run, and the latter managed to scratch out a pair of infield single. Matt Chapman did some nifty fielding, as did Patrick Bailey. Mike Yastrzemski, 이정후 (Jung Hoo Lee), whose seventh inning triple drove in one time Brewer Willy Adames, in the seventh, LaMonte Wade, Jr., and Bailey had one hit apiee.

The teams will go at it again Tuesday, evening at 6:45. Southpaw José Quintana (2-0, 0.71) will start against starboarder Jordan HIcks (1-2, 6.04)