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Gavin Sheets' ninth-inning homer secures improbable win over Brewers

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on

Published in Baseball

MILWAUKEE — Each one seems more improbable than the last.

The San Diego Padres on Wednesday beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1, with all their runs coming on a homer Gavin Sheets hit just over the wall in right field with two outs in the ninth inning.

After Mason Miller locked down his 13th save in 13 tries, the Padres had their 13th comeback victory, their 13th victory decided in the seventh inning or later and their eighth victory earned in their last offensive half-inning.

All that in the season’s first 42 games and their first 25 victories.

Before Miguel Andujar’s two-out single off Brewers closer Abner Uribe, a walk by Xander Bogaerts and Sheets’ blast, the Padres made 19 consecutive outs.

If not for the fact that the Padres have made a habit of stealing victory from nearly certain defeat, this would have been unfathomable on a night in which Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski struck out 10 and finished seven innings for the second time in his career.

He began Wednesday night’s game by blowing a 103 mph fastball past Jackson Merrill’s swing and ended a five-pitch strikeout with a 97 mph slider that Merrill watched helplessly.

There would be nine more strikeouts by the Brewers’ 6-foot-7 right-hander, the last of them on 103 mph fastball that Nick Castellanos swung at helplessly at the end of the seventh inning.

Sounds about right when one of the major leagues’ most dominant pitchers faces an offense that has so far this season been among the major leagues’ least productive.

But what happened in between was a little more nuanced than that.

The Padres did not start out particularly horribly against Misiorowski, and the Brewers scored their lone run on a series of ground balls in the fifth inning and some hesitation by Padres infielders.

After Sal Frelick led off the bottom of the fifth with a single through the right side, No. 9 batter Joey Ortiz laid down a bunt that rolled back to pitcher Michael King. First baseman Ty France had run toward the ball when Ortiz squared, so King had to hold onto the ball while second baseman Fernando Tatis Jr. sprinted over from second base. Tatis arrived too late, and the Brewers had two on with no outs.

 

The next batter, Jackson Chourio, hit a ball to Manny Machado that it seemed could turn into a double play. Machado fielded the ball in front of Frelick, who stopped and ran back toward second. Machado then threw to Tatis for the force out, but Tatis held the ball and did not throw to third, as shortstop Xander Bogaerts had not started running to cover that base until after Machado threw to second.

A grounder to first base by Brice Turang scored Frelick with the game’s only run.

With singles by Sheets and Ty France, the Padres got a runner to third base with two outs in the second.

But for that to have produced a run would have required Rodolfo Duran getting his first major-league hit off Misiorowski. That at-bat ended with Duran striking out swinging at a 102 mph fastball.

The Padres had at least one single in each of the first three innings. Tatis’ second hit, with one out in the third, would give them their last baserunner until Miguel Andujar’s two-out single in the ninth inning off Abner Uribe.

Misiorowski threw 43 pitches in the first two innings and was at 59 through three innings.

But he got through the fourth and fifth on eight pitches apiece and the sixth on seven.

That allowed him to get into the seventh inning for the first time in nine starts this season and the third time in his 23 career starts.

His final two strikeouts, sandwiched around a groundout, had him pumping his bare fist as he hopped off the mound.

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©2026 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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