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Brewers squeeze out 3-2 win over Giants in 9th

May 29, 2011 - 12:11 AM Milwaukee, WI (Sports Network) - Jonathan Lucroy laid down a perfect squeeze bunt in the bottom of the ninth inning to score Ryan Braun and lift the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Miller Park.

Carlos Gomez hit an inside-the-park home run, his third homer of the year, and Prince Fielder and Braun both chipped in with hits to pace the Brewer offense.

John Axford (1-1) tossed a scoreless ninth to pick up the win for Milwaukee, which got back on the right track after dropping Friday's contest to snap a six-game winning streak.

Guillermo Mota (2-2) gave up the winning run to absorb the loss for San Francisco.

Pat Burrell helped out with an RBI single for the Giants, who weren't able to carry over the momentum from their 5-4 win over the Brewers in the series opener.

The Brewers got 7 1/3 strong innings from starter Randy Wolf, who gave up two runs -- one earned -- on only three hits. He fanned five and walked two.

Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez also went seven innings, giving up two runs on two hits while striking out eight and walking four.

San Francisco scored twice in the eighth inning to tie the game, but the Brewers came back.

Their winning ninth inning began with a Braun single to left and Fielder followed with an infield single to put two men on with no outs. Casey McGehee then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up, while Yuniesky Betancourt was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out.

Lucroy was sent up as a pinch hitter and dropped down his bunt down in front of an unsuspecting Giants infield. Mota charged it in front of the mound, but the ball bounced under his glove and Braun scored standing up.

Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Gomez's inside-the-park home run. He smacked the ball down the first base line and it got by right fielder Cody Ross and took a strange hop off the wall near the corner, allowing Gomez to make it all the way around the diamond.

The Brewers expanded their lead in the fourth. After Braun drew a leadoff walk, he stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Eli Whiteside. Fielder also coaxed a walk to give Milwaukee runners on the corners with no outs. McGehee followed with a sacrifice fly to score Braun. After Betancourt flew out to left, Will Nieves followed with a single up the middle to put runners on first and second and keep the rally going for Milwaukee. Sanchez got Nyjer Morgan to ground out to end the inning for the Brewers.

San Francisco mounted a threat in the fifth. Aubrey Huff led off the inning with a single to left. After Miguel Tejada and Emmanuel Burriss flew out, Whiteside drew a walk to give the defending champs two on with two down. Wolf then got the pitcher Sanchez to ground weakly to first to end the threat.

The Giants threatened again in the sixth. After Aaron Rowand led off with a groundout to second, Freddy Sanchez ripped a double down the left field line. He then was able to advance to third on a wild pitch by Wolf. Burrell popped out to short and Ross struck out to get Wolf out of the jam.

San Francisco finally knotted the score in the eighth after pinch hitter Andres Torres drew a one-out walk and Rowand slapped a base hit to left to chase Wolf from the game. Kameron Loe was summoned from the bullpen to bail out Milwaukee, but Freddy Sanchez grounded a ball third that was misplayed by McGehee, allowing Torres to score to cut the Brewers' lead in half. Burrell then stroked a ball in the hole between third and short to score Rowand and tie it at 2-2. Ross grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The Giants went on the attack again in the ninth. Burriss worked a two-out walk and stole second to put the go-ahead run in scoring position, but San Francisco couldn't capitalize, as Whiteside grounded out to end the inning.

Game Notes

The last Brewer to hit an inside-the-park home run was Ricky Weeks on August 7, 2010...The Brewers have had 23 inside-the-park home runs in franchise history...Freddy Sanchez collected one hit, leaving him one short of 1,000 for his career...Home plate umpire Mark Wegner left the game in the eighth inning. Second base umpire Mike Everitt took over behind the plate for Wegner after an 11-minute delay...Braun drew a walk in each of his first three plate appearances and is the second Brewer to walk three times in a game this season...Milwaukee is 6-8 in games decided in its last at bat and 9-10 in one- run games this season...The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Giants in Milwaukee.