EditorsNote: updates second and third grafs to reflect later reults
Mike Moustakas hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning Tuesday night for the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers, who continued to apply pressure to their rivals in the National League playoff race with a 3-1 win over the visiting San Diego Padres.
The Brewers (82-69) have won the first two games of the four-game series while improving to 11-1 in their past 12 games.
After the Cubs lost 4-2 to the Cincinnati Reds later Tuesday, Milwaukee is now tied with Chicago in the race for the NL's second wild-card spot with both teams two games back of the first-place St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central.
The Padres (68-83) have lost six straight.
The Brewers had just one hit -- a Lorenzo Cain homer off rookie Chris Paddack leading off the third -- before Moustakas led off the seventh by going deep off Matt Strahm. It was the 35th homer of the season for Moustakas, three shy of his career high set in 2017.
Trent Grisham added a sacrifice fly in the eighth for the Brewers.
Matt Albers (8-5), the fourth of five Brewers pitchers, earned the win despite allowing Hunter Renfroe's game-tying homer in the seventh. Drew Pomeranz recorded his second save by striking out four in two perfect innings.
Brandon Woodruff, making his first big league appearance since he sustained a left oblique injury July 21, started for the Brewers and struck out four over two hitless innings. He was relieved by Gio Gonzalez, who allowed two hits over three shutout innings in his first appearance out of the bullpen since July 10, 2009.
Paddack allowed just one run on one hit and walked none while striking out nine over five innings. He gave up one run or none for the 13th time in 26 starts this season, and it was the fourth time he allowed just one hit.
It is expected to be the final start of the season for Paddack, who has thrown 140 2/3 innings -- 50 2/3 more innings than he threw between Class-A and Double-A last season.
--Field Level Media
