Brewers’ bats fail to show as Padres win, 2-1

Box Score

Winners of 11 of their past 12 games as well as the last two against San Diego, the Milwaukee Brewers looked to keep rolling right along this evening in the third of a four games series against the Padres. There were two storylines in this game. One was pitching on both sides and the other was the inability of the Milwaukee bats to make contact.

Brewers’ pitchers were really good tonight. Adrian Houser pitched five innings, making just one mistake that led to a couple of runs (a couple of runs off the bat of a career minor leaguer that were the difference in the game). Devin Williams impressed in his inning of work as well, striking out two and demonstrating a fastball/change up combination that baffled Padres’ hitters, including Manny Machado.

Jay Jackson continued to be superb. His slider has been devastating of late, and it was this evening as he struck out two in a scoreless seventh inning. Junior Guerra “Houdinied” out of the eighth inning, and pitched well in the ninth to give the Brew Crew two scoreless innings and a chance going into the bottom of the ninth down one run. Milwaukee pitchers did their part.

Padres’ pitchers did their part just a bit better. The San Diego's starter, Dinelson Lamet, dominated Milwaukee hitters. He pitched six innings, giving up one run, and struck out 14. He is only the 13th pitcher in MLB history to strikeout 14 batters in six or fewer innings. He was painting the edges of the strike zone (and maybe just a little beyond the edges of the strike zone) all night long. The San Diego bullpen finished things off pitching over three scoreless innings with Kirby Yates striking out Ryan Braun to end the game.

Because of exceptional pitching in this match up, there was little offense to speak of. For the Padres, they scored all that they would score in the top of the third inning. Greg Garcia opened the inning with a line drive into center field for a single. As the ball zipped over Adrian Houser’s headed into centerfield, something caught in his back, side, or something. Craig Counsell and the athletic trainer came to the mound to check on the wincing young starter. Houser convinced Counsell and the trainer that he was okay, so he continued.

The next hitter was Seth Mejias-Brean. The 28 year old rookie got the spot start at shortstop. He fell behind in the count, 0-2. Maybe feeling over confident or maybe still feeling the effects of whatever was causing him pain, Houser grooved a fastball over the heart of the plate. Mejias-Brean took an inside-out stroke and launch a deep fly ball into right field that just cleared the right field wall for his first major league home run.

As mentioned previously, Lamet cruised all evening. Not until the sixth inning did Milwaukee do anything against the big Padres’ right-hander. The man to make something happen was Keston Hiura. Lamet threw a 95 mph fastball on the outer part of the plate that Hiura took “oppo” into the second deck of the right field seats. The Brewers cut the Padres lead to 2-1.

Unfortunately that would be as close as the Brew Crew would get. In fact, the Brewers did not really threaten San Diego in any inning, except in the seventh when Corey Spangenberg was at third base, Trent Grisham was called out on batter interference after he struck out, but advanced to first on an errant throw. That was all for naught, because the rookie outfielder inadvertently kicked the ball on his way out of the batter’s box, which results in an out.

The Brewers did get the winning run up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth in the form of Ryan Braun. Unfortunately, he was unable to pull off that same heroics that he did this past Sunday. He struck out as did Milwaukee hitters 16 times in this game. As a result, Milwaukee falls short tonight, but has a chance to win their fourth straight series with a win tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s game will be an afternoon affair. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 CT. Joey Lucchesi gets the ball for San Diego. Jordan Lyles starts for the Brew Crew. The game can be heard on WTMJ and seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin.