SD 5, MIL 8: Mateo's ugly 8th sinks Friar's ship

It's not too often that you bounce back from a 4-run first inning, but today Ian Kennedy sure did. After the Padres rained runs on the Brewers two nights ago and suffered a run drought last night, there was some ugly in-between today. Anti-clutch at-bats and rally's that weren't enough to make up for big bullpen mistakes put the pin in a series-split clinching loss to the Boogers.

It has been a heck of a week for Kennedy, though. Scratched on his last start, rushing for the birth of his newborn daughter only to have his plane grounded, then showing up to the game anyway to pitch a win. Now, getting knocked around a bit in the first inning of his fresh start against Milwaukee. Ian gave up four straight runs on a home run and a triple. What he did next was punch out the Brews for 6 straight scoreless innings, ending the night on those four earned runs, no walks, and 7 strikeouts. Not bad.

What was bad, though, was his relief effort. Marcus Mateo replaced Kennedy in the 8th, and immediately unwind. Double, single, single, single, and the Brewers are up 8-2. Those two Pads runs came from a sacrifice fly from Matt Kemp, and an RBI-single from Will Venable. With a huge deficit to make up, Venable kept the game alive with an RBI-double this time. Brett Wallace then made a pinch-hit home run cameo to bring Wenable home and put the Padres within 3. If you're doing the math, that would have had the Friars over the Brews 5-4 had not that 8th inning happened.

Then Derek Norris struck out, and the ballgame was over. 8-5 Milwaukee.

The good news is that the Padres have a change to beat up Matt Garza tomorrow, who has given up three earned runs in both of his last two starts. Though Odrisamer Despaigne is going to have to pull things together if he's going to make August look a lot better than his July.