CINCINNATI _ The plan was being expertly executed.
They were swinging only at good pitches, hitting them, and letting bad ones go.
Three batters in, Greg Garcia and Manny Machado had singled, Josh Naylor had walked and the Padres had a lead.
The team that entered the game striking out in a little over a quarter of their plate appearances this season, more frequently than all but one club, appeared intent on not letting one the major leagues' strikeout leaders have his way with them.
Then Trevor Bauer stopped cooperating, and the strikeouts started piling up.
Two in the first. One in the second. Two more in the third.
Francisco Mejia interrupted the whiffing for a moment by hitting the first pitch he saw off the right-field foul pole to break a tie, and the Padres went on to a 3-2 victory over the Reds despite Bauer's 11 strikeouts in seven innings.
And, really, that was the plan for the Padres hitters.
Just hit enough. Accept that Bauer, whose 204 strikeouts coming in were fourth most in the majors, was going to get his. Be patient, wait for yours.
Because the Padres were able to do that _ and because four relievers worked five scoreless innings, including Kirby Yates earning his third save in three days and major league-leading 36th of the season _ they won a third straight game for just the second time in the season's second half.
Mejia's blast, the third of his 10 big-league homers that has come at Great American Ball Park, was sandwiched between two more strikeouts.
Two more followed in the fifth, though the Padres also took a 3-1 lead when Reds left fielder Jose Peraza got turned around on a fly ball by Naylor that clanged off his glove as Garcia sped around the bases to score his second run of the game following his second single.
When Eric Hosmer swung through a curve that bounced near the plate to end the first at-bat of the sixth, Bauer (10-10) had reached double digits in strikeouts for the eighth time this season.
As his pitch count rose through the 70s and with Luis Perdomo warming up in the fourth inning after a leadoff walk to Kyle Farmer, Padres starter Eric Lauer did a Bauer impression by striking out the side.
But his fifth strikeout would be Lauer's last, as Andy Green sent Travis Jankowski into the game. Jankowski would stay in the game as the center fielder while Wil Myers moved to left and Naylor took a seat.
Lauer had thrown 86 pitches and allowed four hits while walking two and hitting a batter.
Perdomo allowed one hit over the next two innings. Trey Wingenter pitched a scoreless seventh and Craig Stammen a perfect eighth before Yates worked a heart-pounding ninth.
Three consecutive one-out hits shaved the Padres' lead to 3-2 and had runners at second and third. The second out was made when Machado fielded Nick Senzel's grounder and began a rundown that resulted in three throws before Tucker Barnhart was tagged out at the plate by Yates.
Yates then hit Jose Iglesias to load the bases before Eugenio Suarez struck out to end the game.
Along the way, they all followed Bauer's lead. Perdomo (3-2) struck out four, Wingenter and Stammen two. The Padres ended up striking out 14 times, the Reds 14.
