Another arm down: Miley hit by comebacker, exits after 3 innings

MILWAUKEE – At 3:45 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Wade Miley had a guitar in his lap and was strumming along with a country song in the clubhouse.

By 6:45 p.m. or so, five minutes after throwing his first pitch against the Padres, he was hurting. A 107.7 mph comebacker off the left kneecap will do that. He was angry. He was also trailing by four runs.

The veteran left-hander was out of the Brewers’ 6-3 loss to the Padres after three innings, bruised both figuratively and literally in a four-run first on a night the Padres came ready to swing the bats. Miley, who began this season on the injured list while finishing his comeback from a left shoulder impingement, now will receive treatment on his left knee in an effort to make his next scheduled start next week.

“It’s not fractured, which is good,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “But it’s going to be good and sore.”

Murphy wasn’t ready to fathom losing another arm. As of Tuesday night, he was not ready to name a probable starter for Wednesday’s series finale. By the manager’s count, seven of the team’s projected top 15 pitchers going into Spring Training are injured.

“I believe in the baseball gods,” he said, “and the baseball gods are not going to tear this team apart any more.”

In a way it’s incredible that, even with hobbled starting pitching, the Brewers hadn’t lost a series – they were 4-0-1 in series play – before dropping the first two games of this three-game set against the Padres.

Jakob Junis (shoulder) is on the injured list, No. 5 prospect Robert Gasser is coming back from bone spurs and recently-optioned Aaron Ashby is still in a 10-day window in which he must remain in the Minors, unless he’s replacing someone who lands on the IL.

The Brewers could have slotted ace Freddy Peralta for Wednesday on what traditionally has been considered regular rest, but in recent years the club has given their starters extra rest. Peralta’s terrific performance in Baltimore last week, Murphy said, was a prime example of why that policy works.

“It’s just the season, right? You’re going to run into stuff along the way,” said Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, who hit his own roadblock when he landed on the injured list with low back stiffness. “It’s why it’s so hard those six months, just to navigate it and find ways to piece it together and win. There’s a little luck that’s involved in there, too.”

Tuesday’s game was troublesome from the very start. It began with a pair of singles followed by a Jurickson Profar sacrifice bunt which Miley flipped to first baseman Jake Bauers, who muffed the catch for the first of two Brewers errors in the inning. They proved the least of Miley’s worries when Manny Machado followed by scalding a comebacker off Miley’s left knee. It caromed to Bauers for a run-scoring groundout, and Miley was able to stay in the game after a visit from the athletic trainer.

“I think I had enough adrenaline that it was OK,” Miley said. “Don’t hang sliders in the middle of the plate if you don’t want to get hit.”

Two pitches later, Ha-Seong Kim hit a three-run home run off the foul pole in left field to make it 4-0.

Miley navigated further trouble – an error on third baseman Joey Ortiz on a routine bouncer, a balk call from home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez which infuriated Miley and an infield hit that rolled to a stop near third base – in a long and maddening inning reminiscent of Joe Ross’ nightmarish fifth the night before.

Miley then kept the Padres off the scoreboard in the second inning and again in the third, though he drew another visit from the athletic trainer along with Murphy and pitching coach Chris Hook after fielding a bunt.

After Miley cleared the third inning, the Brewers decided it was enough. Abner Uribe, the flame-throwing reliever who began the season picking up save chances with Devin Williams on the injured list, but lately has fallen into his own struggles, took over for Miley at the start of the fourth.

And like Miley, the Brewers' hitters battled as long as they could. After being mostly silenced during Padres starter Dylan Cease’s six innings, Milwaukee brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh inning and again in the ninth.

“Cease was fantastic,” Murphy said. “They [the Padres] are a really good team, so for our guys to hang in there both nights with adversity ... it's just a credit to this ballclub. I love who they are."