Shields dominates and Upton Jr. elevates

It's easy to win when you're dishing out shutout performances and putting up runs. For the Padres, the past two games have been just that: lights out pitching and lights on hitting. The Padres will return home after this series with Milwaukee, and they started things right today.

Things stayed hot for the Pads after their double-header sweep of the Chicago Cubs. Tonight, James Shields mirrored Drew Pomeranz' no-run effort with one of his own. James went 7 full innings, gave up 7 hits, but was knocking out batters left and right - resulting in 9 strikeouts. The effort didn't budge in the slightest for the Brewer's offense.

By the end of the 7th, Shields had a runner on first and buckled down in an "I got this." moment, sneaking by some 91 MPH goodness to earn his 9th and his final strikeout of the start.

Shields fires seven shutout innings in win

Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter snuck in to shut things off completely for the Brewers, giving Fernando Rodney and his bow some rest.

Something else worth praising to the baseball Gods about is the lack of crucial go-ahead home runs conceded by James. Instead, we were treated to a shining performance from Melvin Upton Jr. starting with an RBI-single in the 4th and ending with a solo HR of his own in the 9th. That's his fourth blast of the season now.

Upton Jr.'s solo home run

Sandwiched in-between was a curling sacrifice fly from Alexei Ramirez, who scored none other than Melvin Upton, who was sliding cleanly across home before Ryan Braun's terrible throw could even find its way in the vicinity of the plate.

Injury of the day: Derek Norris falls victim to the injury assassin, catching a high-inside pitch to the hand. Leaving the game with a "contusion".

Norris leaves the game after HBP on his hand

Funny enough, that bit the Brewers in the butt after Norris' backup-turned-beast-mode Christian Bethancourt made Milkwaukee pay for their sins.

Padres turn strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out DP

X-rays were negative on Norris. Padres will see if the swelling subsides, but expect Bethancourt to start tomorrow.

— Dennis Lin (@sdutdennislin) May 13, 2016

Back in the spirit of injuries, Christian Friedrich gets his first Padres start tomorrow after getting called up from El Paso. He'll plug yet another hole in the starting rotation, and will be matched up against Junior Guerra - somebody who has given up 4 runs in each of his starts and hasn't taken an L for it yet.

Andy Green announces postgame that LHP Christian Friedrich will be starting tomorrow's game

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 13, 2016

With the Padres currently holding the hottest streak in the National League, let's see them give Guerra that L.