MILWAUKEE _ Seth Mejias-Brean, who exactly two weeks earlier made his major league debut at the age of 28, started at shortstop for the Padres on Wednesday night.
"The last 10 or 12 days here, we'll get some guys the opportunity to go out and play and see what they've got," manager Andy Green said a few hours before his team's game against the Brewers.
The Padres have been doing that for months. But this qualified as next level, as Travis Jankowski also made his first start since being called up at the beginning of the month.
And the mishmash will continue.
"I'd say pretty frequently," Green said. "It makes sense for us."
Wednesday's conglomeration couldn't be called a give-up lineup, because the Padres conceded the season long ago.
It could, however, be called a shakeup lineup.
"See if we can get an infusion of life from young guys who are hungry to show what they can do," Green said.
It worked.
That and Dinelson Lamet.
Mejias-Brean gave the Padres their first lead of the series with his first major league homer, and Lamet struck out 14 batters in six innings and the slogging-to-the-finish Padres beat the playoff-hunting Brewers, 2-1.
The victory prevented what would have been a season-long seven-game losing streak and kept Thursday's series finale from being the only thing between the Padres and a dubious team record.
Wednesday's win was their first on this seven-game road trip. The franchise has never experienced a winless road trip longer than six games.
No matter the lineup, no matter how poorly one team has been playing or how good the opponent is, a starting pitcher dealing like Lamet can own a game.
In his 13th start back from a 14 {-month absence due to Tommy John surgery, Lamet became one of just 13 pitchers in major league history to strike out 14 batters in six or fewer innings.
Among the others on that list: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Gerrit Cole.
Lamet was finished after those six innings, having thrown 97 pitches in large part to the three walks he issued.
The first of the Brewers' three hits, with two outs in the fourth inning, came on a Ben Gamel chopper to the right side that bounced two stories high and fell too slowly for second baseman Greg Garcia to make a play. Lamet ended the inning with his ninth strikeout.
He allowed a hard single in the fourth before striking out the next two batters and getting Yasmani Grandal on a pop-up behind home plate.
He began the sixth by freezing Mike Moustakas on a high curve for a called third strike before Keston Hiura launched a 95-mph fastball that didn't get high and in enough 421 feet to center field.
That halved the lead Mejias-Brean gave the Padres in the third inning with a two-run homer that bounced off the top of the wall in right field.
Lamet finished his night with successive strikeouts of Eric Thames and Gamel.
He became the first Padres starter with 14 strikeouts since Jake Peavy had 16 on April 25, 2007. Wednesday was the eighth time a Padres starter has had 14 or more strikeouts. (Peavy did it three times, making Lamet one of six men to accomplish the feat.
Over Lamet's past eight starts, he has struck out 65 in 45 innings.
The three pitchers the Padres presently would pencil in atop their rotation for 2020 have pitched in this series and at least provided hope.
Garret Richards, in his Padres debut following last July's Tommy John surgery, struck out five and allowed three runs in 3 2/3 innings on Monday. Rookie Chris Paddack, in his final start of the season, struck out nine and allowed one run on one hit in five innings.
Trey Wingenter pitched a scoreless seventh and Craig Stammen a perfect eighth before Kirby Yates, making his first appearance in eight days and his first appearance in a save situation since Sept. 7, worked a scoreless ninth to up his major league-leading save total to 41.
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