Two teams that got an opportunity to show off shiny toys out of their bullpen in the series opener go head-to-head again on Tuesday when the San Francisco Giants look for a second straight win over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers.
Robbie Ray and Hayden Birdsong combined to limit the Brewers to two runs in eight innings Monday, but much of the talk among the Giants afterward focused on Camilo Doval’s seven-pitch, 1-2-3 ninth inning.
Coincidentally, Doval’s splashy finish came immediately following the highly anticipated major league debut of the Brewers’ Craig Yoho in the bottom of the eighth. The Milwaukee right-hander surrendered the Giants’ fifth and final run during a 20-pitch struggle.
Doval, who made the National League All-Star team during a 39-save season in 2023, lost the closer role during a nightmarish 2024 campaign that saw him get demoted to the minors.
He has returned as a table-setter this season for setup man Tyler Rogers and closer Ryan Walker, both of whom were unavailable on Monday for the series opener.
So Giants manager Bob Melvin called for Doval in the ninth, and the 27-year-old right-hander turned back the clock with a dominant inning in which he sandwiched two flyballs with a strikeout of Garrett Mitchell.
The outing was Doval’s 11th of the season and his fifth straight without allowing a run. Melvin was most impressed with another stat — a 6-to-1 strike-to-ball ratio.
“It’s getting ahead, throwing strikes right away, especially with the fastball,” Melvin said of Doval’s recent success. “He’s throwing 99 (mph) right away. Now he’s throwing that for strikes. (Then) his breaking ball is far less predictable.”
While the Giants were happy to witness Doval return to form, the Brewers were excited just to see Yoho, a 2023 eighth-round pick who needed just 59 minor league appearances to prove himself ready for the bright lights.
The Brewers not only promoted the 25-year-old from Triple-A for the first time Monday, but manager Pat Murphy also handed him the ball with Milwaukee trailing 4-2 in the last of the eighth.
Owner of a changeup Murphy labeled the nastiest pitch in the Brewers’ camp last month, Yoho came right out flipping mid-70s pitches that helped produce a strikeout of the first big-league batter he faced, Heliot Ramos.
The Giants wound up scoring a run on a walk, a single and a sacrifice fly — one more earned run than Yoho had allowed in eight games (9 2/3 innings) for Triple-A Nashville this season. But if nothing else, it was a beginning.
“This is where everybody wants to be,” Yoho said. “The goal isn’t just to get here, though. I want to get here, and I want to be a big-leaguer, and I want to be here the rest of my career. I’m ready to help this team win.”
Whether Doval or Yoho gets called upon again Tuesday could come down to the effectiveness of the starters, the Brewers’ Jose Quintana (2-0, 0.71 ERA) of the Brewers and the Giants’ Jordan Hicks (1-2, 6.04).
Quintana, 36, has faced the Giants seven times in his career, including six times as a starter, going 1-4 with a 4.98 ERA. The left-hander was the losing pitcher at San Francisco exactly a year ago while with the New York Mets, serving up five runs in five-plus innings during a 5-2 defeat.
The Brewers, meanwhile, are quite a bit more familiar with Hicks. But after seeing him in relief 19 times as he compiled an 0-1 record and 3.00 ERA with three saves, the 28-year-old right-hander will be starting against Milwaukee for the first time.
–Field Level Media
