MILWAUKEE (AP) — Freddy Peralta pitched six scoreless innings, William Contreras capped a five-run fifth inning with a two-run homer and the Milwaukee Brewers hung on to beat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Wednesday night.
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Peralta (9-7) allowed two walks and Thairo Estrada’s base hit through five innings as the Brewers built a 5-0 lead. The Giants threatened in the sixth with a two-out single by Tyler Fitzgerald and a walk before Peralta struck out Heliot Ramos and let out a scream as he walked from the mound.
“It was an exciting moment for me,” Peralta said after he struck out eight, allowed only two hits and walked three. “The last couple of games I didn’t have my normal strikeouts. Fastball was the key today.”
“Freddy was fantastic,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “William did a great job with him. I liked how he stayed after it.”
Contreras echoed those sentiments.
“I like his execution,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “He came out early and was attacking the zone. It’s what I always tell him, ‘Just get after it and attack the zone.’”
Kyle Harrison (7-6) allowed a one-out single to Blake Perkins in the first inning and then retired 11 of the next 12 batters before the Brewers broke through in the fifth.
“It just happened quickly on him,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “Shoot, I thought at the time that he might go six innings. They got three pretty good at-bats off him in a row, unfortunately, and it added up to five runs.”
Jackson Chourio’s RBI base single started the scoring, all with two outs. After a mound visit, Perkins drilled a two-run double off the wall in left-center. Contreras crushed the first-pitch changeup from the rookie left hander for his 18th home run of the season. That was it for Harrison, who left after striking out seven and walking three in his 23rd start of the season.
“We weren’t great offensively except for that one little stretch,” Murphy said. “Contreras put an exclamation point on it.”
Milwaukee’s Devin Williams bounced back from his first blown save last Wednesday at St. Louis with a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save in seven chances. He was reinstated July 28 after missing 104 games with a stress fracture in his back.
The Brewers moved to within 1 1/2 games of the Philadelphia Phillies for the second seed in the NL playoffs and two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the top spot.
The Giants spoiled the shutout bid with a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth.
Matt Chapman doubled off Trevor Megill, advanced on a ground out and scored Estrada’s base hit, his second of the game.
Michael Conforto snapped a 4 for 30 stretch with a run-scoring double and Ramos tacked on another run with a base hit in the eighth, all off Jared Koenig.
“When you have a five-run inning, that can deflate you a little bit, but we came back against some really good bullpen arms and scored three runs,” Melvin said. “Made it a game.”
San Francisco came in having won seven of the last 10 games at American Family Field and nine of the last 14 overall dating to 2019.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: C Patrick Bailey (right oblique strain) is with the club and could be activated from the 10-day injured list on Thursday.
Brewers: LHP Hoby Milner (left shoulder impingement) looks to begin a rehab assignment Aug. 30 with High-A Wisconsin.
UP NEXT
RHP Hayden Birdsong (3-3, 4.57 ERA) starts for the Giants and RHP Aaron Civale (4-8, 4.84) goes for the Brewers when the three-game series concludes Thursday afternoon.
TOP PHOTO: FILE – Milwaukee Brewers mascot Bernie Brewer during an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Oakland Athletics Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)