SF Giants explode for 15 runs in rout of Brewers, own first winning record since last August

MILWAUKEE — The Giants tried and failed once this week to climb over .500. In their second attempt on Friday, they left little doubt.

Unloading on Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, the Giants brought 10 men to the plate in the third inning and scored seven of them, providing ample cushion for Alex Wood and San Francisco’s bullpen in a 15-1 rout, their second in a row over the Brewers and their ninth in their past 11 games. With their run of red-hot play, the Giants (26-25) will wake up Saturday morning with a winning record for the first time since Aug. 17 of last season.

Their scoring explosion in the third inning eclipsed even what they were able to accomplish playing in the pinball machine that was Estadio Harp Helu in Mexico City last month, scoring their most runs in an inning since last April, a figure they have topped in a full game only three times this season.

Leading the charge, Mitch Haniger drove in a season-high four runs, accomplishing something he hasn’t done since leaving the thin international air. He opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the second inning, his third of the season and his first in one of MLB’s 30 regulation parks, before contributing a two-run double that scored the first runs of the hit parade in the third.

Since homering in both games of the Mexico City series, Haniger had been mired in a 5-for-72 (.167) slump, kept in the park for 19 straight games. The Giants’ biggest free-agent addition this offseason — at a cost of $43.5 million over three years — Haniger took a .193 average and .521 OPS into Friday’s game.

Rookie catcher Patrick Bailey also drove in three runs, dinking one RBI single into center field, dunking another into right and lining a double down the left-field line as part of a 4-for-5 performance. After singling home Haniger in the third, Bailey was able to cross the plate himself at a leisurely pace, driven home on a three-run homer by Brett Wisely that capped the enormous inning.

J.D. Davis put an exclamation mark on the rout and his own three-hit performance, launching a 422-foot moonshot three-quarters of the way up the second deck in left field, the longest of the Giants’ three home runs, which all traveled at least 400 feet.

With three more hits Friday, Mike Yastrzemski is batting .400 (6-for-15) with a homer and a pair of doubles in four games since breaking out of an 0-for-19 stretch that dated back to his return from the injured list.