Behind left-hander Kyle Harrison, the Milwaukee Brewers will try to bounce back from a disheartening loss when they close their three-game series against the visiting San Diego Padres on Thursday afternoon.
Harrison (3-1, 2.41 ERA) will oppose San Diego right-hander Griffin Canning (0-1, 6.75) in the finale of the series, which is tied 1-1.
The Padres stunned the Brewers 3-1 on Wednesday on Gavin Sheets’ three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off closer Abner Uribe. Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski held the Padres to four hits through seven scoreless innings, striking out 10 before leaving with a quad cramp.
The victory was the Padres’ 13th comeback win of the season and snapped the Brewers’ five-game winning streak. San Diego is 4-17 when trailing after the eighth inning.
“We’ve done it enough times that you can say that it’s something we’re kind of solid at,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said afterward. “Do you think that that’s going to last the whole season? Probably not. As baseball people, you kind of know that those, they don’t just keep happening all year long. But so far they have.”
The Brewers, who were on the cusp of moving a season-high eight games above .500, fell to 20-2 when leading after eight innings.
Harrison, meanwhile, lasted just four innings his last time out, allowing two runs on four hits without a decision in his team’s 4-3, 10-inning win over the Yankees on Saturday. He struck out six but walked four in a 77-pitch outing.
“Harrison was good, don’t get me wrong,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “A couple leadoff walks, what did he walk, four?”
Harrison is 1-1 with a 7.31 ERA in three career starts against the Padres, allowing six homers in 16 innings.
Brice Turang drove in the Brewers’ only run Wednesday with an RBI fielder’s choice in the fifth inning. He is hitting .370 with two homers, four doubles and eight RBIs in his last 12 games.
Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers doubled to extend his hitting streak to six games. Bauers is hitting .317 with seven doubles, a homer and eight RBIs over his last 16 games.
Canning will make his third start of the season since coming off the injured list.
After allowing one run on three hits in five innings in his first start, Canning struggled his last time out. He gave up six runs — all in the fifth inning — on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings in a 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
Canning is 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA in his lone career encounter with Milwaukee.
Padres closer Mason Miller picked up his 13th save Wednesday, tying him with Cleveland’s Cade Smith for the major league lead. Miller struck out two, giving him 40 strikeouts in 19 2/3 innings.
Three of Sheets’ six home runs this season have been go-ahead homers in the ninth inning or later, and all three have been three-run shots.
“It’s a weird belief that we’re going to get it done,” Sheets said. “In the hardest part of the game, the whole entire dugout just keep saying, ‘Hey, this ain’t our first time doing this, and we’re going to get it done right here.'”
“It’s a pretty cool feeling,” he said. “It’s hard to explain because you don’t often see, usually when the closer comes and everything’s going on, the team’s a little defeated, but we don’t have that.”
–Field Level Media
