MILWAUKEE _ Nowhere Brett Kennedy pitched this year prepared him for what he faced Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
Not in the thin desert air of El Paso and Las Vegas. Not in the thin mountain air of Albuquerque and Reno and Salt Lake City. Not in windy Oklahoma City.
In none of those Pacific Coast League locales where offensive numbers are often ridiculously inflated had Kennedy been bombarded the way the Brewers greeted him at the outset of his first major league game.
Kennedy became the first pitcher in major-league history to allow three consecutive home runs in his first big-league inning, which got the Padres well on the way to an 8-4 defeat.
According to STATS, Inc., Kennedy is the third pitcher to allow homers to three straight batters in his debut, along with Bill Fulton in 1987 and Tyler Thornburg in 2012.
Kennedy, who turned 24 on Saturday, allowed another run in the second inning before getting through his final two innings surrendering just two more singles. He was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth having thrown 86 pitches and allowing 11 hits in his four innings.
Solo home runs off Phil Hughes _ by Orlando Arcia in the fifth and Christian Yelich in sixth _ gave the Brewers their final two runs.
Austin Hedges led off the fifth inning with his second single of the game, went to second on Freddy Galvis' walk and scored on a Cory Spangenberg single. Hunter Renfroe's two-run homer in the sixth, his third straight game with a home run, made it 7-3. Manuel Margot doubled in Spangenberg, who reached on an error, in the seventh to make it 8-4.
Like virtually every pitcher making his major-league debut, Kennedy spoke the day before of his goal to treat it like just another game.
Even before the homers, after he had retired Yelich on a grounder and given up a groundball single to Lorenzo Cain and a bloop single by Mike Moustakas that hit the left-field line, it was evident the young right-hander was not quite pitching any other game.
Where he generally throws 91-93 mph, he had by that point thrown four of his 15 pitches faster than 94 mph and even hit 96 mph with the pitch Cain slapped through the right side.
The issue was pretty simple for a pitcher whose ability to locate is paramount.
The slider Jesus Aguilar reached out to tag 367 feet the other way to right was not a terrible pitch. But the fastballs Travis Shaw hit 421 feet and Eric Thames hit 384 feet were essentially dead over the middle of the plate _ at least as close as a pitch needs to be in order to invite substantial damage in the big leagues.
The Padres, who on Friday will debut right-hander Jacob Nix, hope Kennedy's launch was akin to the April debut by left-hander Eric Lauer, who allowed seven runs (six earned) in three innings April 24 at Colorado.
Lauer has since at least been mostly competitive and has had a number of solid starts, including going 82/3 innings without allowing a run to the Dodgers last month.
Much like Coors Field and the Rockies, Miller Park and the Brewers comprise a tough opening foe and venue combination.
The Brewers entered the game with the ninth-most home runs in the majors. Aguilar's was his 28th, Shaw's his 23rd and Thames' his 16th. Either of the first two totals would lead the Padres, and Thames would rank second on the Padres.
Many pitchers get a rude awakening when they make the jump from Triple-A to the majors.
What was somewhat curious is that Kennedy had earned his promotion by taming the notoriously hitter-friendly PCL in his first Triple-A season. He allowed five runs in a game twice and a total of six home runs in his 16 starts for the El Paso Chihuahuas. His ERA in 891/3 innings was 2.72, which with one more inning would have ranked fourth among the PCL's qualifying pitchers.
