MILWAUKEE -- The Giants absorbed another loss on Wednesday, but catcher Buster Posey took his frustration out by hitting his hardest base hit of the season.
Posey extended his 22-game on-base streak in the Giants' 6-3 loss to the Brewers by blasting a two-run shot to center field for his first multi-run home run of the season. The ball traveled a projected 421 feet with a 106.6 exit velocity off his bat and took only 6.3 seconds to leave the park, according to Statcast™.
"I was just looking for a ball out over the plate and was fortunate to get one," Posey said. "Anytime there's a runner in scoring position you're trying to get him in, and you just, again, try to get a pitch you can handle and do some damage with."
Posey's eighth long ball of the season came on Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson's first pitch of the at-bat -- an 88.6 mph hanging slider over the plate.
"It was just bad pitch selection on my part. I threw him a first-pitch slider after I threw him one in his first at-bat. They put together some good at-bats early in the game. I started mixing it up better after that. Manny [Pina, the Brewers' catcher] did a good job, the defense did a good job."
"He's got good stuff," Posey said of Nelson. "Power sinker and a good slider and he mixes in the curveball. Again, just looking for a ball that you can handle."
The two-run homer was Nelson's only allowed in the game and first in 17 1/3 innings pitched over three starts. It gave the Giants a 3-1 lead, but the Brewers tied it up, 3-3, in the fourth inning, and added three runs over the fifth, sixth and seventh innings for the win.
Including Posey's homer, the Giants finished Wednesday's loss 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position, including a missed opportunity for Posey -- when he flied out to right field with two on in the first inning.
"I think Buster's previous at-bat, he hit that ball pretty good, but it didn't quite go out," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "The next at-bat he hit the home run. That was the difference really. He had two good at-bats back to back there, but even the first two innings, we had doubles, we just couldn't move them or get them in."
Entering the game, the Giants ranked fourth to last in the league with a .243 average with runners in scoring position. The team is now hitting .228 (19-for-83) with runners in scoring position, an issue that must be resolved, Bochy said.
"We've got to get these guys to relax," Bochy said. "Of course, the at-bats, we've got to get these guys to settle down. We've got to get some guys to step up for us and help us out."
Posey has hit .364 (47-for-129) with 28 runs, five doubles, eight homers and a triple in 38 games against the Brewers. He is on a nine-game hitting streak, batting .412 (14-for-24) in that span. He finished 1-for-3 with a walk on Wednesday.