Skip to content

Adrian Houser and the Brewers’ offense came up big against the Giants to snap a long losing streak

SAN FRANCISCO – A grueling, frustrating road trip ends with a happy flight home.

The Milwaukee Brewers snapped a six-game losing streak behind a solid outing from Adrian Houser in his season debut and Willy Adames’ 100th career home run, defeating the San Francisco Giants, 7-3, at Oracle Park Sunday afternoon.

After a week in which the Brewers had rarely played well in any facet, they finally put all the pieces together to salvage a 1-5 road trip out west.

Houser, in returning from a groin injury he suffered at the end of spring training, went 4 ⅔ innings of two-run ball, striking out five and coming up with the necessary pitches with men on base to mostly scatter seven hits.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 7, Giants 3

One of the game’s biggest moments for Houser and the Brewers came at the outset, as Houser faced 2021 postseason nemesis Joc Pederson with runners on the corners and one out in the bottom of the first. Needing to avoid relenting a big inning early while mired in a weeklong losing streak, Houser got a double play grounder to escape the inning.

Then, minutes later, William Contreras drove a two-run home run to the bleachers in left to put Milwaukee in front.

William Contreras is greeted by Willy Adames holding the celebratory cheesehead after the Brewers catcher belted a two-run home run against the Giants in the second inning Sunday.

William Contreras is greeted by Willy Adames holding the celebratory cheesehead after the Brewers catcher belted a two-run home run against the Giants in the second inning Sunday.

The Giants strung together three two-out singles and a walk in the bottom half to tie the game, 2-2, but a sac fly by Adames to score Christian Yelich in the top of the third gave the Brewers the lead right back.

Adames crushed the ball on his sac fly swing but ultimately wasn’t rewarded beyond the run batted in. The next time up, Adames left nothing to chance. He smashed a changeup Giants starting pitcher Ross Stripling hung over the meat of the plate 394 feet to left for his sixth homer of the year and No. 100 for his career.

Hoby Milner relieved Houser with two outs in the fifth and two on, and struck out Pederson on a full count with an elevated fastball.

Joel Payamps recorded five outs as a bridge to the final two innings. In the eighth, Peter Strzelecki bounced back from a rough series in Colorado by striking out three and stranding two in scoring position.

In the top of the ninth, the Brewers tacked on with RBI singles from Yelich, with a looper to left that scored Joey Wiemer thanks to a nifty, pants-ripping slide into the plate, and Adames, who recorded his fourth RBI of the game with a one-out bouncer through the drawn-in infield.

More: Dominating in the minors, Tyler Black is the Milwaukee Brewers’ hottest prospect at the plate

More: You can buy the original Milwaukee Brewers racing sausages costumes – for $25,000

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Adrian Houser’s season debut leads Brewers to win over Giants