In a battle of All-Star pitchers, SF Giants lose on bad-luck play in extras to Brewers

SF Giants' Carlos Rodón, Corbin Burnes face off; Giants lose to Brewers in extras

SAN FRANCISCO — A marquee pitching match-up turned into an ugly, extra-inning 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers to open up the Giants’ final series before the All-Star break on Thursday night.

The outcome was decided on a bad-luck RBI dribbler Jonathan Davis hit off closer Camilo Doval into the dead zone between the mound and third base, scoring the ghost runner from third base. An ending not befitting of the tension brought between two teams potentially fighting for a playoff spot and the performances put on by the two All-Star pitchers from either side.

Though, Carlos Rodón’s start differed mightily from Corbin Burnes’ start.

The bar is high after his shutout against the Padres last week, but Rodón wasn’t at his best against the Brewers.

Milwaukee wasn’t biting much at his slider and the troubled Giants’ defense couldn’t close the margin for error, which made for some long innings and multiple scoring threats. But strong performances from Rodón, the newly-minted All-Star, happen in variety of ways.

“In some ways, the performance when there’s a bunch of foul balls and he has to deliver strikes and his pitch count goes up there and he has to work around some defensive miscues, in some ways those are the most impressive types of outings,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “In this case, I thought he pitched as well as he could have. Unfortunately they drove his pitch count up and he wasn’t able to continue.”

Rodón lasted five innings, using 99 pitches to get through it, and surrendered three walks. He said he thought could have stayed in the game longer, but he won key battles that allowed just one earned run and struck out seven batters.

In the second inning, a pair of bloop singles by Luis Urias and Rowdy Tellez and a Pedro Severino hit loaded the bases with no outs. Rodón handled it, striking out the side — Jonathan Davis looking at a fastball, Andrew McCutchen swinging at a slider and Willy Adames swinging at 98 fastball up — to strand the runners. Rodón shushed the home crowd.

Some of that tension grew in the fourth inning with a runner on and Severino taking long strides towards first base after two strike calls, then stared Rodón down on the eventual ball four. Rodón laughed.

“It’s part of the game. He stared at me and I thought it was funny,” Rodón said. “He put together a good at bat and it was a nice walk. It is what it is. He’s probably happy to be back.”

Severino recently returned from an 80-game PED suspension issued by the league in April.

After walking Davis for his third free pass of the night, Rodón couldn’t hold the tide much longer. McCutchen hit a sacrifice fly to cut the Giants’ lead in half.

Rodón kept at it through a pitch count ticking up rapidly. He struck out the first two batters of the fifth inning, but Milwaukee threatened again with back-to-back hits from Victor Caratini and Urias.

Mike Yastrzemski gave the iffy Giants defense a nice highlight with a outstretched catch at the wall to rob Tellez of an RBI.

Rodón left the game with the lead, too, but Milwaukee erased that lead quickly and tied the game with three consecutive singles against John Brebbia, Wednesday afternoon’s opener against Arizona.

With Burnes throwing some of his best stuff, including his signature cutter, a comeback seemed possibly, yet improbable.

They scratched the surface, at least. Yastrzemski scored the game’s first run in the third inning without the team recording a hit yet — he walked, stole second base, took third on a passed ball and scored on one, too. Joc Pederson’s RBI single in the next at bat was the Giants’ first of the game and gave them their second run.

“We figured it was going to be a back-and-forth kind of pitching duel,” Kapler said. “Burnes was able to keep his (pitch count) under control in large part because he was able to keep his cutter under control.”

Burnes held the Giants to one earned run over seven innings and returned to the mound for the eighth with 101 pitches thrown. Brandon Crawford blooped a single the other way on his first offering, and after pinch hitter Wilmer Flores struck out, LaMonte Wade Jr. drew a seven pitch walk to get Burnes to a season-high 115 pitches and force him out of the game.

After getting Austin Slater out, reliever Hoby Milner hit Thairo Estrada in the foot to load the bases. Pinch hitter Darin Ruf hit a 3-1 sinker 355 feet to deep right field for a loud out to strand the runners.

In extras, the Giants couldn’t come up with an answer for that bad-luck RBI against air-bending reliever Devin Williams.