SAN DIEGO – It’s hard to find a hotter bat than San Diego’s Jackson Merrill, who came through with another critical late home run in the Padres 3-2 comeback series opening win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night at Petco Park.
Casey Mize made his ninth quality start of the season, his first for the Padres (63-57), with Merrill picking him up thanks to his MLB-leading 13th RBI of August. The Brewers (74-45) dropped just their 17th game when scoring first and the 22nd after leading.
"I think the way (Merrill) is taking at bats, he can hit about anything out. He was really struggling with that high fastball for a while and now he's starting to tag a few of those, he just missed one earlier in the game, and then this was that part of the game where their starting pitcher was wearing down just a little bit, velocity started to creep down, Ty gets on with the big base hit and Jackson puts 'em away with the home run to dead center, it was awesome," manager Craig Stammen said.
Merrill, who entered the night with home runs in back-to-back games, gave San Diego their first lead of the game after Ty France hit a one-out single off Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson. After taking a pair of fastballs for a 1-1 count, Merrill teed off on a low change up and mashed it 431 feet to straightaway center for his 19th home run.
"(I was) being aggressive, waiting for a pitch in the middle to drive, I know the situation I knew we could use it, I was going up there trying to do some damage," Merrill said on the field after the game.
To start the game, Mize struck out three of the first four batters he faced, then with an out in the second walked William Contreras. Then Christian Yelich went with a first-pitch fastball to the opposite field, hitting a two-run home run to left for his eighth round-tripper and his 39th and 40th RBI.
In the home half France was able to split the deficit by lining a lead-off solo home run into the left field seats. After seeing fastballs on four of the first five offerings from Henderson, France smoked the middle change up into the second row for his 17th homer and first since a two-run shot on July 23.
The second inning would be the only time Mize really got into trouble, as he pitched through six innings for the ninth time and allowed only three runners in scoring position at bats for the Brewers. After allowing a one-out Jake Bauers double in the third, a fly out and a ground out sandwiching a walk ended the threat.
"Pretty good execution over all, strike throwing was better, found myself in good counts more often than not. When I do all those things, I feel like I put myself in a good spot to have some success," Mize said.
Denis Poroy - Imagn Images
San Diego Padres pitcher Casey Mize (32) delivers during the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Petco Park.
From there he faced the minimum, getting help to erase a Jackson Chourio single in the fifth when the left fielder got caught stealing by Freddy Fermin, throwing him out at second as Chourio overslid the bag and Jake Cronenworth was able to track him down to apply the tag.
But opportunities were few and far between for the Brown and Gold, as Fermin had a lead off double in the third, but couldn’t take advantage after a sacrifice bunt by Sung-Mun Song as Fernando Tatis Jr. and Cronenworth both came up empty against Henderson. After the double, the Brewers righty retired 12 in a row, including out-battling Cronenworth on a nine-pitch at bat to end the sixth for Henderson’s seventh punch out.
"(Henderson) is a really good pitcher and he pitched well against us tonight. We knew going in he was going to be a tough one to handle with his fastball-change up combination, then the cutter was really good for him tonight too, but we just battled him and kept him in the game long enough for us to wear him down and finally get him out of the game,' Stammen said.
Mize finished with six innings pitched and two runs, striking out six and walking two.
"We don't have a lot of time to get a little bit better every time, I needed to step back in and do what I can do, so I'm glad I did that tonight and provided some quality and turned it over to the best bullpen in baseball, I was happy to do that," Mize said.
Yuki Matsui pitched a clean seventh with a strikeout and earnede is third win, then Adrian Morejon picked up his 19th hold with a strikeout on an ABS challenge where he painted the outside black with a sinker to ring up Brice Turang, then got an inning-ending double play.
Mason Miller finished off his 30th save with a strikeout and a walk, as Fermin fired out former Padre Brandon Lockridge trying to steal second.
Henderson was lifted after 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and walking one to take his second loss.
"These games are all going to be close, tonight we got the big home run at the end to take the one run lead and get to our bullpen, which is a strength of our team, but it's going to be a tightly contested series...I'd expect two more games like tonight," Stammen said.
The second game of the series will see Walker Buehler (6-5, 5.07 ERA) get the nod for the Padres, having averaged two earned runs per outing allowed across his past four starts — San Diego went on to win all four.
Milwaukee counters with left-hander Kyle Harrison (9-2, 2.87 ERA), who has only had one start all season where he allowed more than three earned runs and has conceded two or fewer in 15 of his 18 starts. Harrison’s 2.7 WAR is second for the Brew Crew behind only Jacob Misiorowski (4.7), who San Diego will avoid this series.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11 at Petco Park, and will be the 15th or 16 consecutive days with a game until the Padres’ upcoming off-day on Thursday, Aug. 13.
This story was updated at 10:49 p.m.