The San Diego Padres showed off starter Casey Mize, and Jackson Merrill came through late to get the win.
The San Diego Padres got a strong start from deadline acquisition Casey Mize and a clutch two-run homer to get a 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opening game of their three-game set.
Mize was the big story early. He was awful in his first outing against the Arizona Diamondbacks last week, but he put the bad outing behind him to give the Padres six innings of two-run ball.
The Brewers did get on the board first, however, as they scored both of their runs in the second off Mize. It was Christian Yelich who did the damage with a home run after a walk to William Contreras, and the two-run shot put the Padres down 2-0.
They cut the lead in half in the same frame, though, as Ty France countered with a solo shot of his own off Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson.
The score froze after that as both starters settled down. Mize’s line included five hits, two walks and six strikeouts to go with the pair of runs he gave up, while the Brewers made a mistake by trying to stretch Henderson into the seventh.
Merrill made him pay with his homer, and from there the Padres bullpen took over. Yuki Matsui picked up Mize with a scoreless inning in the seventh, and Adrian Morejon did the same in the eighth. That brought on Mason Miller, who did give up a walk, but Miller also struck out a hitter on his way to his 30th save of the season.
The win didn’t help in the wild card race with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies both posting wins, so teh Padres remain a game out. It did give San Diego a foundation of sorts as they set up the new version of their rotation, though, with Robbie Ray going against the Brew Crew on Wednesday versus fellow trade acquisition Dustin May.
Manager Craig Stammen expects more nail-biters going forward, especially against a team like the Brewers, who have taken advantage of the recent struggles of the Los Angeles Dodgers to surge ahead in the race for the best record in baseball at 74-45.
“These games are all going to be close,” manager Craig Stammen said in a followup piece from Bernie Wilson of MLB.com. “We got the big home run at the end to take the lead and we were able to get to our bullpen, which is the strength of our team. But it’s going to be a tightly-contested series. I would expect two more games just like tonight.”
