Cain eyes another strong outing versus Milwaukee

The San Francisco Giants hope Matt Cain has turned the corner from his recent winless streak and he'll toe the rubber Tuesday versus the Milwaukee Brewers at AT&T Park.

Cain was 0-3 with a 7.94 earned run average in four starts from June 23-July 10, but is now 2-0 in his previous three appearances. Cain was on point in Thursday's 2-1 win at Philadelphia and limited the Phillies to a run in eight innings of work.

The right-hander is 7-6 in 22 starts and lowered his ERA to 4.57. Cain lost to Milwaukee at Miller Park on April 18 and yielded all seven runs in six innings of a 7-2 defeat. In 10 career starts against the Brewers, Cain is 3-6 with a 5.05 ERA.

San Francisco opened this four-game series with Monday's 4-2 win and used a three-run eighth inning to snap a 1-1 tie. Jeff Francoeur drove in a run with a base hit and both Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt scored on a throwing error by Brewers third baseman Jeff Bianchi.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy tinkered with his lineup, especially at the leadoff spot, and moved Marco Scutaro to the top of the order. Andres Torres and Gregor Blanco weren't getting the job done since the All-Star break. Scutaro was 0-for-5 with a strikeout.

"We didn't get going until the last inning," Bochy said, "but it's a lineup that we're going to look at for a while."

Chad Gaudin pitched well in the no-decision and gave up a run in 6 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts and four walks. Santiago Casilla worked around two hits in the eighth for the win and Sergio Romo surrendered a run in the ninth before nailing down his 27th save.

San Francisco has won four of six games.

The Brewers hit the road again on Monday and will play nine straight away from Miller Park. The start of the trip was a soggy one, as the Brewers lost for the fourth time in five tries.

John Axford was dealt the loss in relief for his role in the decisive eighth inning, spoiling the start of Tyler Thornburg, who gave up one unearned run and seven hits in six innings.

Juan Francisco was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI, while Jean Segura and Jonathan Lucroy both had two hits. Roenicke thought Rickie Weeks was safe on an inning-ending double play in the seventh with the score knotted at 1-1. The Brewers thought it should have been a run-scoring fielder's choice instead of a possible momentum stopper.

"There were a couple of missed calls that hurt us, and they got a couple of breaks, but we didn't play well," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "We had chances and we didn't play well."

Milwaukee went 4-3 on its last road trip from July 26-31 and still has to visit Seattle and Texas on the current trek.

Wily Peralta has lost back-to-back starts and gets the nod for the Brewers Tuesday. Peralta gave up four runs -- three earned -- in five innings of a 6-1 loss at the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.

The loss dropped Peralta to 7-11 in 23 starts this season and raised his ERA slightly from 4.54 to 4.57. The right-hander faced San Francisco for the first time on April 16 and did not record a decision in the 10-8 Milwaukee victory. Peralta was tagged for six runs -- five earned -- in four innings.

Milwaukee registered a three-game sweep of San Francisco from April 16-18 at Miller Park and had won four straight in this series until Monday.