MILWAUKEE — Gary Pettis must be confused.
Since he arrived two days ago, Zimnyama does not look like a team that was struggling and needs to bring in a new coach who is playing third place only two months into the season.
They’ve strung together two complete, often clean-sheet efforts in a row — an accomplishment for a team that hasn’t won more than three games in a row in any fashion all year.
And it has come against indifference.
Casey Schmitt hit his 13th hit of the season on the first pitch off Brewers starter Coleman Crow and the Giants continued to hit hard enough to survive starting Adrian Houser against his former team, knocking off the NL Central leaders Thursday afternoon for the second straight game, 12-9, to clinch a four-game set.
Catcher Eric Haase, another former Brewer, added the cherry on top of the win with a grand slam into fast center before the seventh out.
Drew Gilbert even found redemption with a missed catch at the wall early in the series, leapfrogging the spectacle of Andrew Vaughn’s home run in the eighth.
Perhaps the only knocks were a dirt throw from Willy Adames that Rafael Devers couldn’t take and the pitching staff’s persistence in throwing the bases on balls — three in 4 ⅓ innings from Houser, whose day was over after a two-run shot off Jackson Chourio, and five more from the bullpen’s 28-game total.
That forced manager Tony Vitello to approach him, despite a five-run lead, after Wilkin Ramos failed to record an out and home run in the ninth. Representing an even game, David Hamilton sent a fastball from Caleb Killian to the warning track in center field but it ended up sitting in the park for a more difficult final than it should have been.
San Francisco took a 3-0 lead after bringing nine men on in the first and added back-to-back doubles by Adames and Jung Hoo Lee to start another three-run rally in the third. That, it turned out, was just an entertaining six-run seventh inning when 11 batters came to the plate.
It took a lot of work for Ron Wotus in his final game as a third-string interim coach.
When the Giants take the field Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, Pettis will be standing in the box, hoping to get more opportunities to swing home runners.
What does it mean
The Giants have never enjoyed many games like this one, let alone put it together.
Logan Webb was hoping his seven-inning shutout in Wednesday’s 1-0 win would set the tone for the Giants to start changing the script. It didn’t translate to the next person in the rotation, but maybe it was the start of something good anyway.
Who is hot
Jung Hoo Lee tripled, doubled and scored three runs, extending his hitting streak to 12 new games. In the stretch — the longest streak in the majors and the longest by a Giant since Dominic Smith’s 15-game hitting streak last year — Lee is an impressive 24-for-45, including five multihit efforts in seven games since returning from the IL.
Bryce Eldridge extended his on-base streak to 11 games with an RBI single to drive in Luis Arraez in the first, then worked a walk into the third and lined another single to right in the sixth for his third trip to the plate.
Schmitt, meanwhile, set a new career home run in the 63rd game of the season and is making a strong case to represent the Giants in the All-Star Game next month.
Who is not
Almost everyone has had good times in the last two games.
Except for Rafael Devers.
The first baseman is back from the slump he seemed to be coming out of in May, when he slashed .306/.356/.593 with 14 doubles, tying the franchise record for most hits in a single month.
Since the calendar turned to June, Devers was 0-for-16 with eight hits until he lofted a double over the right-field wall in the top of the ninth.
However, Devers was already responsible for one of the Giants’ most hit balls of the game – a 107 mph line drive that went directly behind the glove of third baseman Luis Rengifo.
Next
The Giants will play their second and third games in a row to start a three-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, then undergo a quick turnaround following the 5:30 pm start on Sunday Night Baseball before starting the homestand the next evening.
Robbie Ray will look to complete at least five innings for the first time since May 8 when he takes the mound in Friday’s series opener with first pitch set for 11:20 am PT.
