Padres beat Brewers with another big inning, another comeback

MILWAUKEE — The Padres looked tired, an understandable plight following a flight halfway across the country through the night and well into the morning.

Then suddenly, they were wearing out Brewers pitcher Joe Ross with an impossibly quick barrage that was difficult to fathom.

With a few hard singles and a few soft singles and a passed ball and a catcher’s interference and a ball four on a pitch clock violation, the Padres sent 10 batters to the plate in a six-run fifth inning to build the base of another comeback.

With a 7-3 victory at American Family Field on Monday night, the Padres have a winning record for the first time this month.

They are 10-9, and they are evidently built to overcome.

Monday was their fifth comeback victory of the season and fourth in their past seven games. This was their third time fighting back from down three runs or more, one fewer comeback that big than they had all last season.

The Padres, who arrived at their downtown hotel shortly before 4 a.m., were down 3-1 when Luis Campusano began the fifth inning with a hard grounder that pinballed off third baseman Joey Ortiz and shortstop Willy Adames. With their slowest runner as the lead runner, a hard single by Tyler Wade and flared single by Xander Bogaerts served only to load the bases before Fernando Tatis Jr.’s groundout to the right side moved every runner up and made it 3-2.

Wade scored the tying run when a fastball only slightly off the plate caromed off catcher William Contreras’ glove and went to the back wall. On the next pitch, Jake Cronenworth’s swing hit Contreras’ glove, putting Cronenworth on first.

Manny Machado followed with a rocketed line drive up the middle that second baseman Brice Turang stopped with a sliding grab on the grass but could not turn into a force out at second. That scored Bogaerts and moved Cronenworth to second.

After Jurickson Profar struck out, Ha-Seong Kim walked when Ross did not get a full-count pitch off in time. Jackson Merrill’s two-strike, two-out single brought in Cronenworth and Machado before Campusano’s second single of the inning drove in Kim to make it 7-3.

It was just before the big inning that Padres starter Joe Musgrove appeared to find what he had been searching for all night and for much of the season.

Musgrove threw 21 pitches in the first inning, as the Brewers took a 1-0 lead on three singles and a walk. He threw 19 more in a second inning in which he surrendered two singles and a two-run homer to Jackson Chourio. It was not a three-run homer because Blake Perkins made a mistake (or two) and Tatis made a perfect throw and Tyler Wade made a perfect tag.

Perkins’ error was in sliding headfirst into second base after taking off on a hit-and-run despite Joey Ortiz having singled through the right side. Arguably, his second gaffe was choosing to get up and try for third when it was Tatis fielding the ball. It did take a 96 mph one-hop strike by Tatis that Wade caught and in one motion swiped Perkins’ leg just before he touched the bag.

The play kept the third career homer by Chourio, MLB’s youngest player, from hurting more.

The Padres, meanwhile, were going down quickly against Ross, a former Padres minor leaguer traded in 2014 along with Trea Turner in the deal that brought Wil Myers to San Diego. Ross, who has worked his way back from two Tommy John surgeries, got through the first three innings in 31 pitches.

Cronenworth began the fourth with a walk, moved to third on a single by Machado and, after Profar popped out, scored when Kim beat out a fielder’s choice grounder.

Musgrove, who was at 59 pitches after three innings, took five pitches to get through the fourth.

After sitting for nearly a half-hour, he walked two batters in the fifth before ending the inning with a double play grounder. He retired the Brewers in order in the sixth, improbably finishing his second quality start of the season before Enyel De Los Santos worked a scoreless seventh, Stephen Kolek got the next five outs and Robert Suarez came in with runners on first and second.

After an infield single by Contreras that loaded the bases, Suarez ended the game and secured his sixth save by getting Sal Frelick on a fly ball to left field.

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