Padres 6, Brewers 4

That's three in a row in Milwaukee, although we needed 10 to do it this time around. Big, big win. We had to prove to ourselves that we could beat somebody else in the NL Central other than the Reds. Mission accomplished. We beat the NL Central leaders. Perhaps we can beat the beast from the east next, the Mets? They just split a four-game series in L.A., so they are for real. 

The hero was, again, Cron Zone with a three-run dinger in the 10th, his second winning shot in as many nights. Machado's average is down to under .340, which shouldn't surprise anybody. He just faced some of the best pitching in the league over the past 10 days with the Brewers and the Cardinals. Luckily, besides Cron, other players are picking up the slack, in particular the bottom of the batting order. Grisham got a hit and a walk. Azocar got a hit and two runs. In addition, Voit got two hits, although I feel he is lacking the power we need from the cleanup spot. 

The pitching: Clevinger was back, so Melvin needed to shuffle his rotation again with seven healthy starting pitchers. Clevinger pitched three innings with one run given up, followed by Nick Martinez with four innings and two earned. Seven innings and three earned should suffice, or, at the very least, keep you in the ballgame. I doubt Melvin gives a toss how he gets his innings as long as the quality part is fulfilled. As a reminder: we have used seven starting pitchers this year, including Darvish, Clevinger, Martinez, Musgrove, Gore, Snell, and Manaea. Judging by the rotation, Melvin is going with a six-man rotation, since Musgrove won't be facing the Mets. The question is, how long do we keep seven starters? Could we trade one? The bullpen did its job, but was shaky. It was nice to see Rogers get the save after blowing it on Thursday. Suarez allowed three baserunners, but Tim Hill, whose ERA now sits at 5.40, made some quality outs to send this into extras. 

Then there's another former Padre who's made good in a Brewers uniform, Eric Lauer. Lauer was average when he pitched for us, although I remember he beat the Dodgers every time he faced them. That was reason enough to keep him for a while. He pitched well enough against us today, that's for sure.

I'm wondering what Melvin's thinking was. Clearly, he was keeping Clevinger on a pitch count. Clevinger was at 60 pitches after three, which is too much, but probably not surprising. That's why we put Martinez in to give us another 70 pitches. Gutsy performances all around. I'm not sure I'd have kept Martinez in to start the eighth, simply because the percentages are against him. He had just pitched four shutout innings, after which we got a little greedy. Then again, with a seven man rotation, we can afford these types of experiments. Good ending to a tough road trip. Time for some home cooking. And we will need more than two or three runs per game. It seems to me the number we should be gunning for is four. With our starters, you have to like our chances.