MILWAUKEE -- Holy Sheets, the Padres did it again.
Scoreless and down to their final out, Gavin Sheets launched a go-ahead three-run home run in the ninth inning off Brewers closer Abner Uribe, sending San Diego to an improbable 3-1 victory Wednesday at American Family Field.
It marked the second time in three games that the Padres had been held scoreless through 26 outs, only to change the outcome with a dramatic home run. Nick Castellanos did so against the Cardinals on Sunday.
Here’s a breakdown of a wild one in Milwaukee -- on a night the Jacob Misiorowski-Michael King pitchers’ duel lived up to its billing, only for Sheets to steal the show in the ninth:
Down, but never out
Misiorowski stifled the Padres for seven innings, and a slumping San Diego offense seemed destined to go down quietly against Uribe with two outs and nobody on in the ninth. But …
“At the end of the day,” said Miguel Andujar, “we compete to 27 outs.”
Sure enough, Andujar began the rally himself by shooting a two-out a single just over the glove of Brewers second baseman Brice Turang. Xander Bogaerts followed by working a feisty walk to bring Sheets to the plate.
After falling behind in the count, 0-1, Sheets got a slider from Uribe that hung out over the plate. He didn’t miss.
“Just good at-bats there in the ninth,” said manager Craig Stammen. “Sheets got one that he liked, and took it out of the ballpark.”
The Padres have made a habit of late comebacks this season. And, in several of those, they’ve come back from the dead -- games in which their sputtering offense offered very little for eight innings or so.
“As an offense, we’re not at our peak right now,” Sheets said. “But we’re having unbelievable at-bats at the most important parts of the game.”
The Padres are 25-17, in first place in the National League West. They’ve done it without playing their best baseball overall -- but by playing their best baseball when they need to.
“It’s a weird belief that we’re going to get it done,” Sheets said. “In the hardest part of the game, there’s just the whole entire dugout saying, ‘Hey, this ain’t our first time.’”
Sheets does it again
Sheets, in particular, has been the hero multiple times in games like this one. Already this season, he has a walk-off home run at Petco Park and a go-ahead ninth-inning home run in Colorado. He’s the first Padre since B.J. Upton in 2016 to hit three go-ahead home runs in the ninth-inning or later in a season (and it’s only May).
“I see just a calmness about him,” Stammen said. “He feels confident in himself whether he gets the job done or not. So he’s playing with a little bit of freedom, taking an at-bat with freedom.”
Sheets says the key to his success in those moments is exactly that -- craving those at-bats in the first place.
“The biggest thing, when Bogey was up, is just telling myself I wanted that at-bat,” Sheets said. “Just continue to say, ‘I want this at-bat, I want this at-bat.’
“I want the moment.”
And he delivered once again. Sheets’ home run landed just to the left of the San Diego bullpen -- where the Padres had Mason Miller loose for just the occasion. Miller would nail down his 13th save.
King in command
Milwaukee opened the scoring in the bottom of the fifth inning by hitting a whole bunch of ground balls and making the Padres work defensively. That’s just what the Brewers do. They put pressure on you.
It resulted in a run and some questions about whether the Padres could have defended better than they did. On two plays in particular -- a Joey Ortiz bunt single and a Jackson Chourio double-play grounder, where they only got one out. (Answer: Yes, they could have defended better; no, their mistakes weren’t egregious.)
“To me, that’s Brewer baseball,” said King. “They’re going to be disciplined, even with their baserunning, and I feel like they did a great job on the basepaths.”
Other than that run in the fifth, King allowed nothing. He pitched 5 2/3 innings, striking out five while mostly limiting hard contact. This wasn’t his dominant best. But as we’ve seen time and time again this season, King doesn’t need to be at his dominant best to be effective.
King has been a steadying presence in a rotation hit hard by injuries this season. He lowered his ERA to 2.63 and just about matched zeros with an utterly dominant Misiorowski.
This was the Padres’ first look at the Brewers’ phenom, and they came away impressed.
“He's special, and we knew it,” said Sheets. “And we knew -- with King throwing the ball today, too -- it's a 1-0, 3-1 game-type outlook.”
Sheets made sure it was the latter.