The Milwaukee Brewers took care of business at home against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday with a 6-4 win to open their series against the best team in the National League West Division.

It was a game that saw widespread contributions from the Brewers to get the desired end result, and their night of scoring began with Joey Ortiz.

In the bottom of the third inning, Ortiz launched a solo home run to left-center field to give Milwaukee an early 1-0 lead. It was Ortiz’s first home run of the season after he had been struggling at the plate. 

It was a moment that manager Pat Murphy praised after the game.

"I mean, Joey looked great and again, the kid's been through a lot," Murphy said. "His defense has been fantastic, but he's got to follow it up. It was a great job, we know it's in there. Let's keep going, and I'm really proud of him.

"The whole team was so excited for him," Murphy added. "That was one of the neat things of today was to see how the team reacted to him hitting a homer, you know what I mean? It was like a walk off, you know what I mean? The guys were just on the edge of their seats."

Ortiz followed up his home run with a sacrifice fly RBI in what was a five-run fourth inning for the Brewers. In the sixth inning, he singled to right field. By the end of the night, Ortiz went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs and a run scored.

When Ortiz hit the sacrifice fly ball to center field in the fourth, the pop of the bat and the initial launch sent the crowd at American Family Field into an uproar. Even Murphy thought it would be Ortiz’s second home run of the day.

"I did, yeah, I thought he hit it again," Murphy said. "But it was another great swing, and he got one to bleed for him, which was great. And it's a day he'll remember."

Murphy also admired the pitching performance, which started with Brandon Sproat going 5 ⅓ innings with six strikeouts before handing the ball off to Shane Drohan. He was the first of Milwaukee’s four relievers used in the ballgame.

"Sproat was very good," Murphy said. "A couple mistakes, but he was good. Drohan, Patrick; Megill threw the ball good. He just gave up two 0-2 hard contacts, it wasn't necessary. Uribe was great. So, pitching was really good."

Murphy also highlighted the Brewers’ big fourth-inning offensive push, but criticised the lack of results that came afterward. 

"Offense, we did some good things," Murphy said. "We put together that one inning with all those hits, but we were kind of silent after that."

The Brewers will resume action against the Padres on Wednesday at 6:40 p.m. CT.

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