Crew goes back-to-back-to-back, hits 5 HRs in win

MILWAUKEE -- Jesús Aguilar, Travis Shaw and Eric Thames hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first inning, and the Brewers were only getting started.
Orlando Arcia and Christian Yelich also went deep in an 8-4 win over the Padres on Wednesday, giving the Brewers homers from five different players to tie a franchise record in a bounce-back victory at Miller Park.
"Look, this is how we're going to score runs," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "A bunch of guys driving the baseball, that's good. That's what we want to do. You're going to score a bunch of runs doing that.
"I think the threat of that throughout a lineup is dangerous, and tonight kind of showed it."

There was no letdown like the night before, when Aguilar and Mike Moustakas smacked two-run home runs in the first inning for a 4-0 lead, only to see it slip away in an 11-5 loss. Staked to a 5-0 lead after one inning thanks to Aguilar's three-run homer and solo shots from Shaw and Thames, Jhoulys Chacín limited the damage to three runs in six innings, giving the steady veteran a bounce-back game of his own after getting thumped at Dodger Stadium last week.

All eight of Milwaukee's positional starters had a hit before the team made its 16th out, starting with a five-run first inning against Padres starter Brett Kennedy in the 24-year-old right-hander's Major League debut.
It marked the first time in franchise history that the Brewers hit three consecutive home runs in a home game, according to STATS. They had done it on the road six times, most recently in Detroit on May 19, 2015, when Ryan Braun, Adam Lind and Aramis Ramirez went deep in succession.

The Brewers gained ground on the Cubs, who lost, 9-0, to the Royals, and trail them by 1 1/2 games in the National League Central standings with 45 games left on Milwaukee's regular-season schedule.
Kennedy was 10-0 with a 2.72 ERA in 16 starts for Triple-A El Paso before the Brewers touched him up for six runs on 11 hits in four innings in his big league debut.
"We knew he had a really good record down below in Triple-A, but it's a little different up here," Aguilar said through an interpreter.
"I actually feel kind of bad for him," Chacin said. "It was his MLB debut, and I remember my MLB debut. That's the thing I didn't want to have happen to me. The kid came back and threw three more innings and only gave up one more run, so I feel like he got better. But it was nice for me to see the offense [score] those runs early in the game. That's the lineup we all want to see."

The Brewers also roughed up Padres reliever Phil Hughes. Arcia's solo shot in the fifth was his third hit of the night and his first Major League home run since April 19, snapping a streak of 182 plate appearances without a homer. Yelich's solo homer an inning later was the most prodigious of the night, leaving his bat at 108.4 mph, and it would have traveled 432 feet, according to Statcast™, had it not smashed into the scoreboard over center field.
"We always turn the page from bad games," Arcia said. "We were able to forget about yesterday's game and come out and do the job."

MOMENT THAT MATTERED
Aguilar gets it started:Lorenzo Cain and Moustakas singled before Aguilar homered on a full-count slider, low and away, for a 3-0 lead in the first that Milwaukee never relinquished. Aguilar leads the Brewers with 28 home runs, including 15 in two-strike counts.
"Before [Kennedy] could get going, we made him feel uncomfortable," Counsell said. "I think that's the best formula against a young starter in the big leagues. Bottom line is that 'Agui' hit a pitch out that most guys can't hit out. … It's kind of the last thing you're expecting. That puts anybody on their heels, I think."

Aguilar continued a welcome power surge. He homered in the opening frame for the second straight night, giving him a home run in three of the last six games after being held to one homer in 15 games from July 13-Aug. 1.
"I made a decent pitch to Aguilar. He put a great swing on it," Kennedy said. "After that, I tried doing a little bit too much. Things can bite you quick when you make mistakes here."
SOUND SMART
Aguilar has 50 RBIs with two strikes, the most in the Majors and tied for Prince Fielder's single-season franchise record. Fielder set the mark in 2009, the year he led MLB with 141 RBIs.

HE SAID IT
"I think we reached a point with him before we sent him down where we thought the confidence with the at-bats was wavering. But Orlando carries himself very evenly. I give him a lot of credit for that. He's carried himself very evenly through this whole thing." -- Counsell, on Arcia, who was twice demoted to Triple-A this season amid an offensive slump
UP NEXT
The Brewers are 17-28 in day games and have lost seven straight series finales, trends they'll look to buck when Junior Guerra takes the mound at 1:10 p.m. CT on Thursday. Left-hander Robbie Erlin is scheduled to start for San Diego, meaning right-handed hitting Jonathan Schoop is likely to be back in action for the Brewers after getting Wednesday off.