Cueto Records 10th Win, Offense Errupts, Giants Complete Sweep

In the final game of an eight-game homestand, Johnny Cueto had his way with the Milwaukee Brewers, finishing off the three-game sweep with an 8-1 victory to ready the Giants for a happy flight to Tampa Bay.

In his seven innings of work, the Dominican-native continued to be the masterful complement to ace Madison Bumgarner, registering his eighth straight quality start by only allowing one run over seven fantastic innings while setting down nine Brewers on strikes.

Cueto started his day off by facing the minimum through his first three innings on the mound, helping himself out by picking off Jonathan Villar with a swift pickoff move in the first inning after he singled.

The right-hander was adept at mixing up his deliveries to keep the Milwaukee batters off guard, the most prominent of this being when he struck out Hernan Perez by starting his motion in which he lifts his leg and turns, then opting for a slide step mid-delivery to quick pitch Perez.

Cueto found himself in a little bit of trouble in the sixth and seventh when the Brewers got a couple of men on base, but he worked his way out of trouble and limited the Brewers to only the one run.

After striking out Villar on a 3-2 changeup in the top of the seventh, Cueto exited the mound by taking off his cap, exposing his do-rag for all those in attendance, and showing off his emotions, possibly because Villar has had a little bit of ownage. The Giants improve to 12-2 with Cueto on the mound, and Cueto improved his record on the season to 10-1 while lowering his ERA to 2.10.

Cueto's 10th win makes him the 5th pitcher in the Majors to reach the mark so far this season. His 2.9 WAR amongst pitchers and 2.10 ERA place him at 7th in both categories in all of baseball.

With Cueto making quick work of Milwaukee, the Giants offense which was missing the presence of Denard Span and Brandon Belt had the energy it needed to get their starter run support after a frustrating collective night at the plate yesterday.

San Francisco looked like it was in for a repeat performance of last night, stranding two runners while going hitless in two at-bats in the second inning, yet the Giants were able to able to break through to open up the floodgates, taxing Jimmy Nelson for four runs in both the second and third innings.

Buster Posey was a big part in manufacturing those runs, continuing to stay hot after a four-hit game last night with another multi-hit, multi-RBI game this afternoon, raising his batting average to .274 on the season.

The All-Star totaled eight hits in twelve at-bats in his three games against the Brew Crew, which brought his batting average up .023 points and his on-base percentage .015 points.

Posey wasn't the only cog in the San Francisco offensive machine who was sad to see the Brewers leave town, as Gregor Blanco, Joe Panik, and Matt Duffy had a trio of three-hit games while Angel Pagan, in his second game back from the DL, had a two-hit game.

Blanco came into this Brewers series riding a nasty 0 for 27 skid, but with after making adjustments with hitting coach Henry "Bam Bam" Meulens, the White Shark totaled six hits in 13 at-bats, boosting his average from .231 to .252.

Ramiro Pena, making only his second appearance of the season, totaled two RBIs on a single in the bottom of the eighth to give San Francisco their 9th and 10th runs to give himself a batting average for the season.

In San Francisco's three games against Milwaukee, the team totaled 42 hits, including the 16 tallied up this afternoon, which raised their collective team batting average from .249 to .256.

One of the lower points of the San Francisco offense was Conor Gillaspie, who was handed a big league hang with 'em after going hitless in five at-bats and leaving nine runners on the basepaths.

Gillaspie gets little action as it is due to his role as a bench player, so not being able to capitalize in any of his at-bats in the wake of the absence of Belt may leave a sour taste in his mouth while traveling to Florida. It helped the Giants that the Brewers decided to show off every reason as to why they will not be a playoff team come October.

The defensive effort for the Brewers was not any better as the team totaled four errors, most of which helped keep San Francisco's rallies going strong and allowed the Giants to tack on extra runs.

Milwaukee's right fielder Ramon Flores summed up the Brewer's defensive effort of the game for the Brewers by falling on his face due to the bullpen mound in foul territory in pursuit of a fly ball.

Those in attendance made their fair share of nice plays in the stands, including a couple of bare handed snags so much so that the thought of signing a fan to suit up for the Brew Crew might have cross Craig Counsel's mind.

Martin Maldonado, the son of former Giant Candy Maldonado, was the epitome of Milwaukee's struggles. In addition to a throwing error which directly resulted in the Giants scoring a run during their four runs second, the catcher went 0 for 4, and his batting average dropped from an already abysmal .105 down below the hundred mark to .095.

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