Facing one of the top pitchers in the majors, the Giants proved that sometimes, patience can be the solution to a problem in their 7-1 victory over the Brewers.

For five scoreless innings on Saturday evening, San Francisco flailed against Freddy Peralta (15-5), the National League’s leader in wins. 

The 29-year-old was a bit erratic but still effective. He issued four walks but also allowed only two hits and struck out six, keeping pace with Logan Webb in a classic pitcher’s duel.

But with the Giants’ bats floundering against Peralta, Brewers manager Pat Murphy gave the Giants a major break by yanking his ace after 96 pitches. 

With Grant Andersen on the mound and facing a 1-0 deficit, the Giants (62-68) took advantage of some hittable pitches – and a handful of errors – to jump all over Milwaukee (81-49). Casey Schmitt, starting at second, drove in four runs. 

Willy Adames, who received another standing ovation before his first at-bat in his old stomping grounds, got on first to lead off the sixth inning after Andruw Monasterio committed an error. 

Following Dominic Smith’s single, Schmitt tied the game with a double to left. 

Then the red-hot Luis Matos got on base thanks to another error by corner infielder Anthony Seigler, allowing Smith and Schmitt to score and give the Giants a 3-1 lead. Matos had two hits and now has six overall in three games since being called up from Sacramento. 

Schmitt padded the lead with a three-run 382-foot homer to center in the seventh, his ninth long ball of the season, and Patrick Bailey got his second hit of the night to give the Giants a 7-1 lead. 

With their aces on the mound, runs were hard to come by for each team early on. Caleb Durbin doubled in Milwaukee teammate Jake Bauers in the second inning to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead. 

It was not until Peralta was pulled after five innings that the San Francisco offense found its footing against the top team in the National League. 

One of San Francisco’s top bats participated in the offensive explosion. After being on the injured list for the past 10 days with right-hand inflammation, he was back starting at third base and drew two walks. 

“He’s the leader … having him back there on the field just makes us that much better,” Schmitt said on the NBC broadcast.

That put Webb in line to get the win after he threw six innings and allowed five hits and had six strikeouts. He improved to 12-9 on the season. 

If the Giants can knock off the Brewers on Sunday, they will win a series for the first time since Aug. 6 against the Pirates. Robbie Ray is expected to pitch for San Francisco. 

Fitzgerald sent down

To make room for Chapman, the Giants sent Tyler Fitzgerald back down to Sacramento. He was just 2 of 19 at the plate while splitting time between his natural second base position and right field.