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Brewers fall to Giants in opener

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Photo by AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Seth McClung walks off the mound after giving up a bases-loaded walk against the San Francisco Giants in the fifth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco Tuesday, April 7, 2009. San Francisco won 10-6.

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. — This was no way to calm the fears in Brewer Nation about Milwaukee’s pitching staff.

For one day, at least, the Brewers’ pitchers lived down to expectations by getting thoroughly trounced by a lightly regarded San Francisco lineup as the Giants rolled to a season-opening 10-6 victory Tuesday at AT&T Park.

“We just didn’t pitch very well,” said Ken Macha, nicely summing up his debut as the Brewers’ manager.

If you would have told the Brewers beforehand that reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum would be ineffective and out of the game after three innings, they would have had smiles on their faces. But that advantage was negated when veteran right-hander Jeff Suppan picked up where he left off at the end of last season, getting cuffed around for six runs in four innings.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy thought the 24-year-old Lincecum was thrown off his game when an expected rain delay never happened and players were put in “rush mode” to start the game.

“We did change our plan,” Bochy said. “That might have played a part.”

To his credit, Suppan did not blame that about-face for his struggles. What really hurt were two particular pitches: a poorly placed changeup to Travis Ishikawa that was belted for a three-run triple in the first inning and a hanging slider that Aaron Rowand pounded for a two-run homer in the fourth.

“Those are the two at-bats that really stick out in my mind,” said Suppan, who fell to 0-2 with an 8.55 earned run average in four opening day starts.

“In those situations, you’ve got to make the pitch. Both of them were in a location that they could drive it. I really wish I had the location back. I thought they were the right selection but they really did some damage.”

Suppan didn’t catch a lot of breaks in the first inning as the Giants loaded the bases. With third baseman Bill Hall playing far off the bag, Edgar Renteria pulled a single down the line. Fred Lewis then trickled a hit-and-run single to short when J.J. Hardy broke to the bag.

After rightfielder Corey Hart made a marvelous diving catch of Bengie Molina’s blooper, Suppan brushed Pablo Sandoval’s jersey with a pitch to fill the sacks.

“Regardless of how you get there, you’re always working to get out of it,” said Suppan, who allowed six hits and a walk. “You’ve just got to keep making pitches.”

Ishikawa’s gapper to right-center staked Lincecum to a 3-0 lead but the hard-throwing righty couldn’t control his fastball and gave two runs back in the second. Suppan doubled in one with two outs and Rickie Weeks (four times on base) following with another two-bagger.

Lincecum departed after allowing four hits, three walks and three runs in three innings, throwing only 44 of 78 pitches for strikes. The Brewers jumped on rookie reliever Joe Martinez for two runs in the fourth when Hart, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder collected consecutive singles for a 5-4 lead.

But Fred Lewis led off the bottom of the inning with a rocket off the glove of Hall and Rowand followed with his homer to put the Giants back on top to stay, 6-5.

“That makes it tough for the rest of the guys,” Macha said. “We fought back to take the lead and everybody’s feeling good, and then, bang, you’re behind. It came down to the bullpens (after that).

The Giants continued to pad their lead, with a run off Seth McClung on a bases-loaded walk in the fifth, a homer by Molina and RBI double by Rowand—his bouncer down the line was actually foul—in the seventh off Dave Bush and Randy Winn’s booming home run off Jorge Julio in the eighth.

Other than Hall’s run-scoring double in the ninth off lefty Alex Hinshaw, the Brewers had mostly frustrations on the offensive end over the second half of the game. They went 7-for-21 with runners in scoring position but grounded into three double plays and left 11 runners on base.

“They have a good bullpen,” Braun said. “That’s one of their strengths.

“The fact that we got Lincecum out of the game early showed that, as a team, we had a pretty good approach. It was definitely nice to get him out of there but by no means did we think it was going to be our day.”

Whether the opener was an omen of things to come for a team that many believe is shy of good pitching remains to be seen.

“It’s a loss,” Suppan said. “We play 161 more games. I don’t think how you play on opening day dictates how the season plays out.”