Milwaukee, WI – Martin Maldonado clubbed a grand slam in the third inning to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 4-3 triumph over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday.
"One swing of the bat was it," Padres manager Bud Black said. "It is a great learning experience for a lot of guys. Our bullpen did a great job. (Brewers manager Ron Roenicke) made a lot of moves and I made a lot of moves. All-in- all a good ball game."
Jim Henderson (1-2) earned his first career win after tossing a perfect seventh inning. Tyler Thornburg started for the Brewers and gave up one run on four hits and fanned four over four innings.
John Axford stranded two runners in the ninth to notch his 36th save.
"We had plenty of opportunities to score more after the grand slam," Roenicke said. "It always hurts me when we have those opportunities and don't score. The guys in the bullpen did their job."
Jesus Guzman, Will Venable and Yasmani Grandal each drove in a run for the Padres, who have dropped six of their last seven.
Anthony Bass (2-8) gave up four runs on three hits and three walks over three innings to absorb the loss.
With one out in the third, Norichika Aoki reached on a bunt single and promptly stole second base. Following a Logan Schafer strike out, Ryan Braun and Travis Ishikawa each drew walks to load the bases for Maldonando, who crushed a 2-2 fastball over the wall in left-center field for his first career grand slam.
"I didn't get that pitch in enough, I left it out over the plate. They are a good fastball hitting team," Bass said of Maldonado's grand slam. "One pitch kind of cost me and I paid for it. I don't like walks, free passes always tend to score. I knew it was going to come back to haunt me."
Venable put the Padres on the board in the fourth after stroking an RBI single to center field.
San Diego added a pair of runs in the sixth to pull within 4-3. With two on and one out, Guzman roped a pinch-hit base hit to right field to score Chase Headley.
Two batters later, Grandal delivered a pinch-hit single of his own to bring Guzman across.
Axford struck out the first two batters in the ninth, but gave up back-to-back singles to Grandal and Andy Parrino to put runners on the corners. Axford, however, was able to get Logan Forstyhe to ground out to shortstop to end the game.
Game Notes
The Brewers have seven grand slams this season ... Milwaukee leads the NL with hit batters (90) ... The Brewers have won three of their last four ... Bass' last start came on June 20th. He hasn't posted a win since May 15.
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