Jake Cronenworth hit a pair of two-run homers and finished with six RBIs Saturday afternoon as the San Diego Padres defeated the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 10-3 to end a three-game losing streak.
Cronenworth’s first homer off Brewers’ starter Freddy Peralta broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth. Cronenworth’s second homer, a 410-foot line drive to center off Hoby Milner, capped a three-run seventh. It was the first multi-homer game of Cronenworth’s career.
Steven Wilson (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Seth Lugo to earn his first win of the season. Lugo gave up three runs on eight hits and a walk, with five strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings
Peralta (2-1) took the loss, giving up five runs on nine hits and a walk with five strikeouts in five innings.
Entering Saturday’s game, Peralta and Lugo had given up a combined three runs over 25 innings. Each gave up two in the first and a total of eight runs in a combined 8 2/3 innings.
Christian Yelich drew a game-opening walk and scored on Jesse Winker’s double into the right-field corner. Winker scored on a two-out single to right by Brian Anderson. Milwaukee has scored eight runs in the first innings of the first three games in the series.
Peralta retired the first two Padres he faced before issuing a two-out walk to Juan Soto. The Padres then got three straight singles by Xavier Bogaerts, Cruz and Cronenworth — the last two producing runs to tie the game.
The Padres took a 3-2 lead in the second when Trent Grisham doubled with two out and scored on Manny Machado’s single.
The Brewers tied the game in the fourth. Victor Caratini got the second of his career-high four hits with one out. Brice Turang and Joey Wiemer followed with singles to load the bases and Caratini scored when Lugo hit Winker with a pitch.
There was a scary moment in the bottom of the eighth when a 105-mph line drive off Machado’s bat struck Brewers reliever Gus Varland in the right jaw as the pitcher was spinning away. The blow knocked Varland off his feet. Although he got back up, Brewers trainers sat him back on the ground before assisting him off the field.
The Padres scored two runs in the inning on back-to-back, bases-loaded walks drawn off Javy Guerra by Cruz (3 RBIs) and Cronenworth.
–Field Level Media