MILWAUKEE _ A pregame decision turned out to be more important than an in-game decision on Tuesday as the Padres won a second straight game for the first time since June.
A batter after Freddy Galvis' failed safety squeeze resulted in Hunter Renfroe being thrown out at the plate for the second out of the seventh inning, Franmil Reyes ripped a double to left-center field that brought home two runs and gave the Padres their first lead in a game they would win 11-5.
Reyes went 3-for-3 and scored three runs, including one via his second homer in two games.
It had been 45 games since the Padres put together even the minimum winning streak, a span that dates to June 13 when they left St. Louis having taken the final two games of a series against the Cardinals.
The victory avoided another ignominious distinction for a team still barely on pace for a 99-loss season. The Padres' record for games without back-to-back victories is 48, set in 1974.
This win, on the heels of Sunday's 10-6 victory against the Cubs, came largely due to the right-handed bat of the rookie Reyes, who got the start over left-handed hitting Travis Jankowski even though the Padres were facing Brewers righty Chase Anderson.
Anderson's effectiveness is in his pitch mix and use of spin. Jankowski is batting .278 on fastballs and .195 on breaking pitches. Also, Anderson entered the game having allowed 14 home runs at Miller Park, most of any Brewers pitcher this season.
"Franmil has a chance to hit one a long way at any point in time in this ballpark," Green said before the game. "Put as many guys in the lineup who can hit the ball out of the ballpark on him."
Indeed.
Tuesday's homer gave Reyes eight in 117 plate appearances. Jankowski has six homers in 851 career plate appearances.
Manuel Margot's home run in the fifth inning got the Padres to 5-4 in the fifth inning. And a two-run home by Hunter Renfroe, another right-handed hitter who started, made it 9-5 in the eighth.
Margot got his fifth RBI of the night on a bloop triple in the ninth that scored A.J. Ellis, and Margot scored when the relay throw to third skipped into foul territory.
That gave the Padres at least one run in seven straight innings, the longest such streak since June 24, 2016 at Cincinnati.
It took the first six of those innings to overcome the hole they were in from the start, when Clayton Richard surrendered a pair of two-run homers in the first inning.
After going down in order in the second inning, the Padres began chipping away at Anderson. They made him throw 30 pitches in the third inning, getting on the scoreboard after Reyes walked, Cory Spangenberg singled, Richard bunted both over and Margot laced a two-run single to center field.
The Brewers got one run back on a single, balk and two fly balls in the bottom of the inning.
Reyes and Spangenberg started the sixth with singles and moved up on pinch-hitter Carlos Asuaje's sacrifice bunt. Reyes scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Margot, his fourth RBI of the night.
Richard ended up lasting five innings. Phil Maton got the first two outs of the sixth inning before being replaced by Matt Strahm, who got the win to improve to 3-3 because his three-pitch strikeout of Eric Thames preceded the Padres' two-run seventh.
Trey Wingenter pitched a perfect ninth inning in his major-league debut.
