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Parra gets framed twice

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Photo by AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Milwaukee Brewers' Manny Parra walks off the mound after being relieved in the fifth inning against the San Francisco Giants in a baseball game in San Francisco, Thursday, April 9, 2009. The Giants won 7-1. Parra was the losing pitcher.

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. — Two innings doomed them.

Milwaukee Brewers left-hander Manny Parra locked up the San Francisco Giants, a team not expected to be potent on offense, for three innings.

Parra, one of the staff’s young, talented starters, moved the ball around, changed speeds and showed nice command.

Then, like so many times last season, he hit a wall and the Giants capitalized with five runs in the fourth and fifth innings, taking the final game of the season-opening series, 7-1, Thursday at AT&T Park.

Bengie Molina, who led all National League catchers in runs batted in last season, did most of the damage with two doubles and four RBI. He had chances because Fred Lewis, the No. 3 hitter, was on base four times.

“Their 3-4 guys in the lineup took care of us pretty good,” manager Ken Macha said. “Lewis on base every time and Molina had two huge doubles.”

Lewis and Molina had consecutive doubles to start the fourth and Aaron Rowand hit a two-out single to bring in Molina. Rowand had four RBI in the series.

The fifth inning got off to a bad start for Parra when he walked opposing pitcher Matt Cain. Parra said it was the first time in his career he had walked a pitcher in the regular season, and he picked a bad time to do it.

Randy Winn singled after that and Edgar Renteria followed with a chopper to third base. Craig Counsell fielded it and stepped on the bag to erase Cain, but his throw to first sailed and Prince Fielder couldn’t get up high enough to catch it. The ball rolled to the railing along the first-base dugout and Winn scored from first.

Lewis drew a walk after that and Macha lifted Parra for Mark DiFelice, who gave up a two-run double in the left-center field gap to Molina after getting ahead, 0-2.

“At that particular time, I didn’t feel like I could trust (Parra) to make a pitch,” Macha said. “He walked the pitcher leading off the inning and then walked Lewis.

“DiFelice is pretty tough on right-handers. He gets his cut fastball, slider in there pretty good then hangs one.”

Parra said he didn’t get tired but he felt as if his arm was too far behind his body in his delivery in the fifth.

It wouldn’t have mattered if Parra would have held the Giants to just a couple of runs, though, because the Brewers’ bats were shut down by Cain, one of the Giants’ young, talented starters.

Cain threw seven innings and allowed one run in the seventh before exiting. He walked two and struck out five and kept the Brewers to a 0-for-5 day with runners in scoring position while he was on the hill.

Cain is known for a good fastball, but Macha was more impressed with his curveball to right-handed hitters and his changeup to lefties.

Still, the Brewers had opportunities. Corey Hart led off the third inning with a double, but Cain sat down Jason Kendall, Parra and Rickie Weeks to leave Hart stranded.

Counsell singled to start the next inning, but Cain put away the middle of the Brewers’ order—Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy—without incident.

Mike Cameron led off the fifth with a single, and … well, you know how the story goes from there.

It wasn’t until the seventh that the Brewers managed anything. Hardy, who started the season 0 for his first 11, singled hard up the middle to lead off. Cameron drew a walk behind him and after a fielder’s choice moved Hardy to third, Kendall’s fly ball to center scored him, cutting San Francisco’s lead to 5-1.

The 3-4-5 part of the lineup went a combined 1 for 12 with four strikeouts and five guys left on base.

With the game still in reach, Macha brought in right-hander David Riske to start the bottom of the seventh. He immediately got into trouble when Winn doubled and Renteria singled. Winn scored after Hart bobbled the ball in right.

Lewis then singled on a 3-2 pitch through the hole on the right side of the infield with Renteria running. Molina’s sacrifice fly to right scored Renteria to seal the victory.

“That’s a concern,” Macha said of Riske. “Spring training was not a good one for him. We’re hoping right now that he can get his form back, get it sinking. Right now it’s not happening.”