by ANTHONY WITRADO, Staff, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Brewers have been a team grinding its gears lately and struggling in several aspects, so seeing San Francisco Giants ace Matt Cain to start this three-game series didn't seem like a good thing.

But the actuality turned out to be a very different thing.

The Brewers got to Cain early and never let up, beating up the Giants, 5-1, behind Yovani Gallardo's dominant 118-pitch performance Friday night at Miller Park. The victory moved the Brewers back into first place in the National League Central, percentage points ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals, who lost to Minnesota, 3-1.

After the Brewers lost their last series against the Twins to start the home stand, beating a guy like Cain to start this set can erase some bad memories.

"It's nice after having what I would term a disappointing series against Minnesota," manager Ken Macha said. "It's nice to start this series off with a win."

Gallardo gave up a two-out home run to Pablo Sandoval in the first inning, but the Brewers hit back when Craig Counsell led off the bottom half with a triple and Ryan Braun doubled him home.

Casey McGehee started against the right-hander because Macha thought he couldn't keep his hot bat on the bench, and the third baseman made the manager look smart by crushing a double off the center-field wall to score Braun for a 2-1 lead.

J.J. Hardy hit a 93 mph fastball for a home run and his 500th career hit to extend the lead.

The Brewers took advantage of Cain's lack of command and fielding difficulties in the fifth.

He walked Gallardo and Counsell to start and loaded the bases when he couldn't throw out Hardy on a sacrifice bunt try. Cain and third baseman Sandoval at first couldn't decide who should field the bunt, until Cain grabbed it, turned and threw to first. The throw pulled first baseman Travis Ishikawa off the bag, but the play was still ruled a hit.

Braun singled to score Gallardo and Prince Fielder's sacrifice fly to left barely plated Counsell, who had to sneak his foot onto the plate before catcher Bengie Molina could gather the throw and make the tag.

Cain left the game after six innings and took the loss to drop to 9-2. He never got a chance to settle in as the Brewers poked balls to the opposite field on good pitches and worked his pitch count.

"(It's) very important, but the way Yovani threw it wouldn't have mattered," Hardy said about not letting up on Cain. "It's always important to keep scoring even if you score in the first."

As Hardy said, Gallardo (8-4) didn't need that much run support.

After the Sandoval shot, Gallardo got into trouble again in the second, but he struck out Matt Downs and got Cain to ground out to strand two runners in scoring position.

From that point, Gallardo cruised. He retired the Giants in order in each of the next four innings and put away 16 consecutive hitters before Nate Schierholtz sneaked a double down the first-base line with two outs in the seventh.

He commanded his fastball on both sides of the plate and had a sharp breaking ball that he threw for strikes and in the dirt, depending on the situation.

Gallardo's night ended when he walked Sandoval after an eight-pitch battle in the eighth. His final line: 7 2/3 innings, four hits, one run, three walks, nine strikeouts.

After a pair of starts where he couldn't get past the fifth inning earlier this month, Gallardo has been back to his old self in his last two. He has thrown 14 innings and allowed four runs in those games.

"The start I had in Detroit, that's the start that I felt things get back," Gallardo said. "The mechanics and everything came together and I was able to repeat that today.

"We're going to hit bumps like that. You just have to find your way through it."

The effort also saved the bullpen, which has been worked ragged lately, from having to cover more than 1 1/3 innings. That's especially important because reliever Seth McClung, making a spot start Saturday, is not expected to pitch beyond five innings.

"Two guys tonight," Macha said. "It's better than four like we've been using."

TOUGH GOING

Since being called up from Class AAA Nashville on June 13, left-hander Chris Narveson hasn't been very good out of the Brewers' bullpen. He has allowed eight runs in 5 2/3 innings and has had just one clean inning, but manager Ken Macha wants him to help fill Seth McClung's vacated role.

Date Opponent IP H R BB K

June 15 at Cleve. 1 2/3 3 3 3 1

June 19 at Det. 2 2/3 3 3 0 3

Tuesday vs. Minn. 1 0 0 0 1

Thursday vs. Minn. 1/3 2 2 1 0

Totals 5 2/3 8 8 4 5

JSOnline.com

Find a photo gallery from the Brewers' victory at jsonline.com/Brewers

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