Game Preview: Game 161 @ Milwaukee Brewers

After dropping the series opener, our Padres are looking to even things up in tonight's contest. Anthony Bass will try to keep the ball in the park tonight as he takes the mound in place of scheduled starter Casey Kelly. Kelly will miss his final start of the season, as well as skip the Arizona Fall League in the offseason, in order to stay healthy and prepare for 2013. Bass made 14 starts earlier this season before hitting the DL with shoulder inflammation. He went 2-6 in those 14 starts, one of which was against the Brewers. On June 10th, in his only career start against Milwaukee, he gave up four runs in 5 2/3 innings for the loss. Since Bass hasn't made a start in a while, he will be limited to between 40 and 60 pitches. Hopefully he will display some efficiency on the mound tonight and make each of those pitches count.

The Brewers will send rookie Tyler Thornburg to the hill to pitch opposite Bass. Thornburg is also pitching in place of a pitcher who is being shut down for the season, Wily Peralta. This will be Thornburg's third major league start. He was called up from Double-A to make his ML debut on June 19th and has yet to record a decision. His last start was on July 18th before being sent back down, but he was recalled on September 4th and has since made two appearances out of the bullpen, allowing one earned run over four combined innings.

Chase Headley and Ryan Braun both failed to bring home runs last night, so the RBI race stayed stagnant. We'll see if Headley can keep or extend his narrow lead in tonight's game or if Braun will make things interesting.