Brewers open series vs. Giants with eye on NL leaders

Two teams desperate for wins will go head-to-head Tuesday night when the visiting Milwaukee Brewers and San Francisco Giants open a critical three-game series in California.

The Brewers (82-61) enter the matchup in the better shape of the two, having taken a commanding nine-game lead in the National League Central entering Monday.

But only the top two division winners earn a first-round bye in the National League playoffs. Four losses in their last five games have left the Brewers trailing both the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers and the East-leading Philadelphia Phillies with just three weeks remaining in the regular season.

"We have an uphill battle," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "I want that uphill battle to be attacked."

Milwaukee will do that on the road this week. After three games in San Francisco, the Brewers will head to Arizona for three more against the Diamondbacks before heading home to host the Phillies.

The Brewers lost ground to the Dodgers and Phillies by going just 2-4 at home against the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies last week. They totaled just nine runs in the four losses.

Milwaukee right-hander Aaron Civale (5-8, 4.62 ERA), who will start Tuesday, gave up three runs in five innings against the Cardinals last Tuesday in the Brewers' 7-4, 12-inning loss.

Civale was coming off his best outing of the season, when he allowed just two hits over seven shutout innings in a 6-0 home win over the Giants.

In three career starts against San Francisco, Civale is 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA.

The Giants (71-73) kept their slim playoff hopes alive by taking two of three at the San Diego Padres last weekend. San Francisco entered the series having lost six of nine games, including two of three in Milwaukee at the end of August.

Opening a six-game homestand that will end with a three-game rematch series against the Padres, San Francisco finds itself needing to pass four teams over the final 18 games to get into the third wild-card spot in the NL.

Even after the series win over the Padres, tensions ran high among the Giants, who nearly blew a late 7-1 lead Sunday after middle infielders Tyler Fitzgerald and Marco Luciano collided under a pop fly.

The two exchanged words in the dugout, and San Francisco manager Bob Melvin was still hot about it after the 7-6 win.

"It's unacceptable. It's just bad - bad baseball," Melvin said. "We've got to clean it up. Our defense has to get better."

The Giants are hoping for better pitching from right-hander Hayden Birdsong (3-5, 5.19), who was in jeopardy of losing his spot in the starting rotation until the club lost Blake Snell and Robbie Ray to recent injuries.

Birdsong has lasted a total of just 6 2/3 innings in his last two starts, serving up seven runs and seven hits.

Five of the runs came in 3 2/3 innings in Milwaukee on Aug. 29, when he went head-to-head with Civale in his first career start against the Brewers.

--Field Level Media