Brewers Win Challenge On Disputed HR Trot, Fall To Giants [VIDEO]
COLIN FLY, Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) — After a late-night arrival, the San Francisco Giants thought they'd quickly caught a bizarre break — Khris Davis was called out for missing the plate on his home run trot.
Davis wound up with his homer after Milwaukee challenged the ruling. Hunter Pence and the Giants got the win, though, rallying past the Brewers 8-4 Monday afternoon.
In the first inning, Davis pointed in the crowd in celebration and skipped across the plate. It appeared to both umpire Will Little and Giants catcher Andrew Susac that the back of Davis' right foot failed to touch down on the dish.
Before Ryan Braun stepped in, the Giants appealed. Pitcher Tim Lincecum lobbed the ball to Susac, who stepped on the plate. Davis was declared out.
"I knew he didn't," said Susac, who stood next to Little for a close-up view as Davis came by. "The thing was, I asked the umpire, you know I know he's not going to tell me whether he knows or not, but I said as soon as he did it, 'It looked like he missed it.'"
Giants manager Bruce Bochy came out of the dugout before the out call. Brewers manager Craig Counsell then walked onto the field to contest the decision.
After a replay review that took several minutes, the home run counted. Davis stomped firmly in the middle of the plate after hitting another solo home run in the third.
Davis was in no mood to talk about the odd sequence. He repeated several different variations of the same phrase to deflect attention away from the play.
"It's not about me, it's about the team," he said.
Pence's two-run double capped a seven-run rally in the sixth. Center fielder Carlos Gomez made two errors in the inning.
The Giants trailed 4-1 before eight straight batters reached in one stretch. After Angel Pagan struck out for the second time in the inning, Pence's double off the left field wall made it 8-4.
Nori Aoki homered for San Francisco and reached base in all five plate appearances. Milwaukee lost its third in a row.
Lincecum (5-2) wasn't as effective as his previous three starts, giving up Davis' two homers and a tape-measure shot to Braun, but earned a win thanks to San Francisco's big sixth.
"The game started off good but then got away from us," Braun said. "It's a huge momentum shifter. It seems like we've been on the wrong side of too many of those innings as of late."
Lincecum went five innings, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks.
Kyle Lohse (3-5) took the loss.
Braun hit a 474-foot homer in the fifth. The two-run shot was the fourth longest in Miller Park history and cleared the left field bleachers. It gave Milwaukee a 4-1 lead, but the Brewers unraveled the following inning.
"We've had the rain delays in Colorado and the travel and lack of sleep," Susac said. "It's a pretty gutsy effort from us right there."
After the start of Sunday's loss to the Rockies was delayed by 2 hours and 10 minutes, the Giants didn't arrive in Milwaukee until 1 a.m. local time.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Giants: Susac started in place of Buster Posey. Bochy said it was for nothing more than a day game following a night game. After the start of Sunday's loss to the Rockies was delayed by 2 hours and 10 minutes, the Giants didn't arrive in Milwaukee until 1 a.m. local time.
Brewers: Counsell said SS Jean Segura (broken finger) will be activated on Friday when his stint on the 15-day disabled list ends. Counsell also said C Jonathan Lucroy (broken toe) will head out on a rehab assignment soon. ... RHP Wily Peralta was put on the 15-day disabled list after the game. Peralta left Friday with a strained left oblique and is expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks.
UP NEXT
Giants: Ace Madison Bumgarner (5-2, 2.84 ERA) starts the second game of the series against the Brewers. The 25-year-old left-hander is 4-2 with a 1.65 ERA in seven games against Milwaukee, and even better in Miller Park with just one earned run allowed over 15 2-3 innings.
Brewers: Matt Garza (2-6, 5.71) starts against Bumgarner. While Garza has had a season to forget so far, against current San Francisco hitters, he's held them to a combined .203 average with one home run and 12 strikeouts over 64 at-bats. The lone homer was by Aoki, who is 1 for 11 in his career against Garza.
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