MILWAUKEE — The Padres’ opening day starter in 2019 allowed one run in six innings. So did the Padres’ opening day starter in 2020.
Neither got a decision Wednesday night in a game the Padres won over the Brewers 2-1 in 10 innings at American Family Field. (box score.)
Mark Melancon earned his major league-leading 17th save, and second baseman Jake Cronenworth at least shared it with him.
With runners at the corners and no outs, Cronenworth dove to grab a blistered grounder by Jackie Bradley Jr. and threw home to catcher Victor Caratini, who tagged out runner Keston Hiura.
Hiura had begun the bottom of the 10th at second base and moved to third on Willy Adames’ single to left field.
Melancon followed by striking out Daniel Robertson and getting Kolten Wong on a routine grounder to Cronenworth to seal the Padres’ 11th win in the last 12 games and 14th in the last 16.
With Wil Myers placed at second base to start the 10th, Caratini led off the extra inning with a single to right field that gave the Padres the go-ahead run.
Manny Machado returned to play for the first time in a week, pinch-hitting in the 10th inning. He popped out to Robertson in foul territory by third base for the second out.
Chris Paddack, still pitching for the Padres, only better than he has in a while, retired the last 11 batters he faced and turned in his second straight quality start.
Left-hander Eric Lauer, a first-round draft pick by the Padres in 2016 who had a 4.43 ERA in 52 starts for the team in 2018 and ’19 and started the first game of the latter season, allowed a first-inning run and nothing more against the team that traded him before the 2020 season.
It was the kind of start Lauer would have occasionally in a Padres uniform, where it seemed the other team was staggered by his sneaky delivery and a high-spin fastball they swore looked like it was traveling faster than 93 or 94 mph.
Lauer also did something he never did for the Padres.
He hit a home run.
His solo shot just over the wall and out of the reach of both left fielder Tommy Pham and center fielder Jorge Mateo made it 1-1 in the third inning.
It was one of two hits Paddack allowed, though Cronenworth’s leaping grab of Adames’ 101.2 mph line drive in the second inning saved a run after Omar Narvaez had led off that inning with a double.
Lauer began the game looking a bit more familiar to those who watch the Padres, walking Pham and having Mateo reach on an infield single to the hole at shortstop. The Padres got just a run, as the runners moved up on a groundout by Cronenworth and Pham scored on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s sacrifice fly.
The Padres would get just two more hits off Lauer, who was lifted in the sixth for pinch-hitter Luis Urias, the other player traded to Milwaukee in November 2019 in exchange for Trent Grisham and Zach Davies.
The Padres had only one hit in the final three innings of regulation. That was Ha-seong Kim’s two-out triple in the seventh before Brian O’Grady, pinch-hitting for Paddack, struck out.
The Brewers did not have a baserunner after Lauer’s homer until Daniel Vogelbach’s pinch-hit single with two outs in the eighth. Pierce Johnson struck out Wong to end that inning.
Lorenzo Cain led off the ninth against Austin Adams with a single. Christian Yelich followed with a walk before Narvaez popped out to shortstop, Hiura struck out and Travis Shaw lined out to center field.
