MILWAUKEE _ It is only the legitimately excellent things in life that are cherished, the most enjoyable that make us wonder when we will experience them again.
It is also those things that are handled most carefully.
So it is that the Padres have treated Chris Paddack as a precious commodity all season and that recently people in his camp have quietly pushed to make Tuesday the final start of his rookie season.
While he has said he will accept the decision when it comes, the 23-year-old Texan has no interest in his 84 pitches in the Padres' 3-1 loss to the Brewers being the last ones he throws in 2019.
He proved that in allowing one hit and striking out nine over five innings, the same way he left no doubt in allowing one run in his three starts leading up to Tuesday.
In his past four starts, Paddack has allowed 13 hits and struck out 32.
His season total has climbed to 140 2/3 innings. That is 50 2/3 innings more than he threw in the minors last year, his first season back from Tommy John surgery, and pretty much square in the middle of the 20-inning window the Padres tentatively predetermined as a ceiling for Paddack. He has thrown 2,280 pitches, 970 more than last year in a season that was about two months shorter than what he has experienced in 2019.
The hit he allowed Tuesday was Lorenzo Cain's homer leading off the bottom of the third inning. That ended a streak of 14 scoreless innings.
Hunter Renfroe made sure Paddack didn't get the loss. Playing for the first time since Sept. 7 due to an ankle injury, he led off the seventh inning with his 32nd homer of the season and first since Aug. 10 (a span of 63 at-bats) to tie the game 1-1.
After left-hander Matt Strahm pitched a perfect sixth inning in relief of Paddack, he stayed in to face left-handed hitting Mike Moustakas to start the bottom of the seventh and left a 1-2 slider in the middle of the plate that Moustakas hit into the seats beyond right field.
It was the first homer Strahm allowed in 20 innings (18 games) as a reliever this season.
