SAN DIEGO_Dallas Keuchel was making his sixth start for the Atlanta Braves on Friday night.
In his first five, he had gotten grounders on 59.3% of the balls opponents had put in play.
That would have been the second-highest rate in the major leagues had Kuechel thrown enough innings to qualify among the leaders. It's the recipe by which the left-hander won the American League Cy Young award in 2015 and posted a 3.28 ERA over 950 innings the past five seasons.
"He's always been a tough guy to get in the air," Padres manager Andy Green said before the game. "We have a number of power hitting guys that aren't going to thrive if we're on the ground."
Of the 29 Padres to face Keuchel on Friday, just six put the ball in the air, as the Braves won the first game of the season's second half and the opener of a three-game series 5-3 at Petco Park.
The Braves jumped to a 4-0 lead with a pair of home runs off Padres starter Dinelson Lamet. They were the only well-hit balls Lamet allowed, but it was easily enough because not until Manny Machado's home run leading off the bottom of the sixth inning did the Padres show any potency against Keuchel, who allowed five hits and struck out five in seven innings.
The 31-year-old Keuchel, who remained a free agent until agreeing with the Braves on June 6 to a contract that pays him $13 million for this season, got 13 ground ball outs, including four from Francisco Mejia grounding into double plays that ended the second and fourth innings.
The other non-grounders were a 68.3 mph single by Franmil Reyes, a 69.8 mph single by Fernando Tatis Jr., a 106.1 mph line drive to center field by Manuel Margot and two weak pop-ups.
The National League East-leading Braves got three runs in the first inning on Josh Donaldson's home run to right field, and another in the fifth on Ronald Acuna's homer to left. Donaldson's second home run of the night, off Matt Strahm in the eighth, made it 5-1.
Lamet, making his second start back from last April's Tommy John surgery, got an out before Dansby Swanson doubled.
The next batter, Freddie Freeman, fouled a 1-0 fastball back and off home plate umpire Dana DeMuth's left forearm.
As Lamet and everyone else watched, DeMuth was tended to for several minutes by Padres assistant athletic trainer Michael Salazar before walking off the field. DeMuth was replaced by first base umpire Angel Hernandez, and the game continued with three umpires.
Coming out of the 11-minute delay, Lamet walked Freeman, threw a wild pitch and hung a 2-1 slider Donaldson hit 394 feet.
The first ball the Padres put in the air against Keuchel was Reyes' single on a 68.3 mph flare into center field. Mejia followed with their hardest-hit ball to that point _ 102.6 mph grounder to second base that started an inning-ending double play.
Keuchel got all three outs of the third inning by strikeout. After Machado and Reyes grounded singles through the infield in the fourth, Mejia again hit a ball hard right at second baseman Ozzie Albies to start a double play.
Lamet left after five innings, having allowed the four runs on five hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven.
Andres Munoz made his major league debut in the sixth and left to a loud ovation, having gotten Brian McCann swinging at a slider to end the inning. The 20-year-old right-hander threw seven of his eight fastballs at 100 mph or faster, including one at 101.9, the fastest any Padres pitcher has been clocked since at least 2015.
That's the fastest pitch by a Padres pitcher in the Statcast era (since 2015).
Gerardo Reyes pitched a perfect seventh, and Strahm got the first two outs of the eight before Donaldson drove a fastball over the wall in right-center field.
The Padres added a run in the eighth and would have had more if not for grounding into their third double play.
Machado led off the inning with a single, his third hit of the game. Hunter Renfroe followed with a walk. Reyes ground to Albies, who touched second before throwing to first for the second out. With Machado standing at third, Mejia singled to right.
That drove Chad Sobotka from the game. Jacob Webb replaced him and got Ian Kinsler on a grounder to third.
Manuel Margot walked to lead off the ninth, jogged to second uncontested with two outs and scored on Eric Hosmer's single. Machado then grounded out to end the game.
