MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers waited all night for that clutch hit to end things.
After Trevor Megill’s second blown save of the season in the ninth inning, Milwaukee walked it off in dramatic fashion in the bottom half. Caleb Durbin hit the first pitch he saw from right-hander David Morgan to beat the Padres, 4-3, on Saturday night at American Family Field.
“We’re survivors,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We know we’re underdogs, and we’re survivors. It’s a great feeling. That crowd tonight was incredible and made a difference. Our guys hung in there and beat a good ballclub.”
Durbin stepped to the plate, looking to do damage right away. He liked the 97.8 mph fastball he saw at the top of the zone and belted it a Statcast-projected 386 feet for the second home run of his Major League career.
The rookie then rounded the bases and greeted his teammates at home plate to celebrate his first career walk-off homer.
“Just trying to be aggressive,” Durbin said of his approach. “You just got to breathe and just kind of simplify it. For me, that's just making sure I'm swinging at a good pitch, trusting myself swinging at a good pitch and dialing it down to that. The rest is going to take care of itself.”
That homer came after Milwaukee battled back in each of the two prior innings. Jake Bauers tied the game on a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Milwaukee added two more runs in the eighth to take a 3-1 lead.
That resilience is nothing new for the Brewers. They continue to fight, and Saturday’s walk-off win is yet another example of that. It was their fourth walk-off victory of the season, and their past three home victories have all come via walk-off.
“This is the type of resiliency that you have to have in games like that,” Murphy said, “when you’re not scoring -- hitting line drives, and they’re catching them. It was just a great effort by everybody.”
Things looked bleak for the Brewers’ offense in the early going. They had no runs through six innings, and their scoreless inning streak was up to 15 innings dating back to Friday’s 2-0 loss.
However, Milwaukee kept hitting the ball hard, and the results finally came. Both Rhys Hoskins and Isaac Collins tallied RBIs in the eighth inning.
“It felt like we may never score again,” Murphy joked. “It’s a group of guys that have been there before. We’ve been through this before.”
It’s difficult to ever count out this Brewers team, especially since they have been one of the better offenses in baseball over the past two weeks. Milwaukee entered the day second in runs (95) since May 18, sixth in batting average (.258) and tied for second in stolen bases (25).
That offense definitely played a large part in the team’s turnaround. Since being shut out in back-to-back games against the Twins from May 16-17, the Brewers are 14-5 while averaging 5.2 runs a game.
Durbin has played a factor in that offensive turnaround. In his past 14 games, he is batting .302 with eight extra-base hits (seven doubles), three stolen bases and just four strikeouts in 59 plate appearances.
“I think it's just dialing in on approach and doing what I'm really good at the plate, and not stemming too far away from that just based off of what the pitcher is doing,” Durbin said. “Obviously, it’s important to know what the pitcher’s got and stuff like that, but definitely want to stick to what I'm good at. I think I've been doing that a little bit more as of late.”
After going 2-for-4 Saturday, Durbin has had a multihit game in three of his past seven contests.
“It's amazing,” starting pitcher José Quintana said after throwing five innings of one-run ball. “We’ve been playing better baseball the last three weeks. As soon as I came here, I knew we had a really good group in here, and now we are starting to show that. So it’s amazing to be a part of.”