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Aurilia helps Giants rally to sweep Brewers

Aug 27, 2007 - 1:11 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) - The Milwaukee Brewers finally received a break against the San Francisco Giants, but it wasn't enough to avert a three-game sweep.

Rich Aurilia's bloop RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning helped the Giants defeat the Brewers, 5-4, and made up for his costly throwing error on Sunday.

In the eighth, Pedro Feliz, who also committed two errors, singled to left center with two outs to keep the inning alive. Aurilia followed with a fly ball off Brewers reliever Scott Linebrink (4-5) to right that just landed in front of right fielder Corey Hart. Giants third base coach Tim Flannery alertly signaled for Feliz to score all the way from first to complete an impressive rally.

"As soon as I saw the ball, the wind is kind of crazy here and I just took off," Feliz said. "I just looked at the coach and he gave me the go and I never slowed down. You've got to take advantage of a little flare like that and you've got to run as hard as you can and see how far you can make it."

"I thought it was going to get caught, honestly," Aurilia said. "But the right field line at this park is kind of crazy. You never know what's going to happen down there, whether it's going to blow back, stay fair or get foul. Is that what I wanted to do with that pitch? Of course not but there's certain things you just say I'll take it and move on."

Milwaukee starter Dave Bush was solid through six innings before the wheels came off in the seventh.

Although he retired 11 in a row at one point, Bush couldn't hold a three-run lead in the sixth, as pinch hitter Ray Durham doubled and scored on Randy Winn's RBI double off the wall with two outs.

In the seventh, Aurilia singled and came around to score when Guillermo Rodriguez ripped a line-drive home run for his first of the season off Bush, tying the game at 4-4. Kevin Frandsen then doubled to center to chase Bush, who was replaced by reliever Brian Shouse.

"We didn't play that great defensively but we clawed back from a couple of runs down and hopefully some of the younger guys that will be here next year can take something out of these last couple of weeks and learn from it and learn how to win games like that instead of how to lose them," Aurilia said.

"We were down and I got my first home run and to tie the game. I was more excited than anything," Rodriguez said. "I helped the team back from losing, 4-1, and I did my job behind the plate too and we stopped those guys after the third inning when they scored three runs. It was an awesome game, amazing."

Bush went 6 1/3 innings, allowing four runs and six hits with four strikeouts. Prior to Bush's outing, the Brewers' starters were brutal on Friday and Saturday. Claudio Vargas and Yovani Gallardo combined to allow 11 earned runs.

"David through the ball very, very well getting quick outs on the attack and was cruising, going into the seventh inning with a really low pitch count and he spun a cutter to Aurilia, the same thing to their catcher and ... boom," Brewers manager Ned Yost said.

San Francisco's Steve Kline (1-2) tossed a scoreless eighth for the win and closer Brad Hennessey logged the ninth for his 14th save.

"Come-from-behind wins are always more exciting," Hennessey said. "It's huge for us to get on a good run right now and build for next year."

In the first, the Giants had taken the lead when Dave Roberts drew a leadoff walk, stole second and was sacrificed to third before scoring on Winn's RBI grounder.

Tied 1-1 in the third, Rickie Weeks grounded to shortstop, but the throw from Aurilia to first baseman Dan Ortmeier pulled him off the bag and first base umpire Paul Emmel ruled that Weeks was safe.

Aurilia was charged with a throwing error, although replays clearly showed that Ortmeier's foot stayed on the bad long enough after receiving the throw.

After Gabe Gross struck out, Prince Fielder walked and rookie Ryan Braun crushed a first-pitch fastball halfway up the left-field bleachers to give Milwaukee a 4-1 bulge in the second.

Giants rookie Tim Lincecum pitched six innings, giving up four runs and seven hits while walking two and striking out five.

The loss keeps the Brewers (65-65) 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs (66-63) in the National League Central.

"The way that we're playing right now, we need to find ways to be a better team and that's all I've got to say, that's enough of that," Yost said.

The Cubs and Brewers will square off for the final time during the regular season with a critical three-game series on Tuesday.

"There's 30-something games and we've got a whole month of baseball left," Bush said. "But we've got to turn things around though, we're not heading in the right direction."