The Padres fought back and then fought back again.
One of its stars is gone, and then another of its stars is gone.
They beat the Brewers 9-5 on Friday and will wait to see how much time they’ve missed Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jurickson Profar.
The Padres’ third straight win brought them back to .500 one game shy of the season’s halfway point and reinforced their belief that anything is possible.
“It’s kind of what we’ve done all year,” said Jake Cronenworth, who went 5 for 5, scored four runs and drove in two. “An incredible job.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) drops his bat after being hit by a pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers during the third inning. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Tatis left in the fifth inning with a bruised left triceps, which he suffered when he was hit by a Colin Rea pitch in the third. Tatis, who has been playing with a right quadriceps strain for several weeks, also appeared severely limped as he ran in the outfield.
Profar, who has played for more than a month with patellar tendonitis in his left knee, left immediately after reaching second base with a one-out double in the seventh inning.
Shildt indicated that neither player is expected to miss much time. Profar said he would take Saturday off but that he could play on Sunday.
Profar’s replacement at second base, José Azócar, scored when Jake Cronenworth singled through the left side for the first of the Padres’ three runs in the seventh, giving them an 8-5 lead.
Padres manager Mike Shildt (8) walks with left fielder Jurickson Profar (10) during the seventh inning. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Cronenworth, whose game-winning home run decided Thursday’s series opener, tied Friday’s game at 4-4 with a home run in the sixth. He also scored his first run, in the second inning, and finished 5 for 5.
The Brewers scored four runs and chased Padres starter Dylan Cease in the fifth inning before the Padres got to within 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth on Luis Arráez’s two-run homer and took a 5-run lead. -4 in the sixth when Manny Machado followed. Cronenworth homered with a double and Donovan Solano scored with a pinch-hit single.
They lost the lead in the top of the seventh.
It wasn’t his beleaguered bullpen that did it. It was shortstop Ha-Seong Kim’s second throwing error of the game.
The bullpen, which went more than four innings for the sixth time in seven days, was pretty wonderful.
Cease exited with two outs and two on in the fifth and the Brewers had already scored three times to take a 3-1 lead.
Tom Cosgrove, called up from Triple-A El Paso on Friday, came on and allowed a run to score.
Tyler Black started the inning with a walk and stole second before Cease recorded his ninth strikeout.
Jackson Chourio followed with a grounder to shortstop that iced Black at second until Arraez tried to catch Ha-Seong Kim’s bounced throw and the ball got away from him. At that, Black ran to third.
He scored when Brice Turang sent a slow grounder down the third base line that Manny Machado fielded and threw home. The throw was high, and when catcher Kyle Higashioka dropped his bunt, Black had touched the plate.
Referee Jansen Visconti declared Black out, but the call was overturned on a replay review.
Singles from William Contreras and Christian Yelich followed, making the score 3-1 and corners before Cease struck out cleanup hitter Willy Adames with his 106th pitch of the night.
The first batter Crosgrove faced reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases. The next batter, Rhys Hoskins, hit a grounder down the third base line that Machado lunged to stop but had no play. That gave the Brewers a 4-1 lead.
Padres starter Dylan Cease (84) pitches against the Brewers during the first inning (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Padres had taken a 1-0 lead in the second inning on singles by Cronenworth and Machado and a fielder’s choice groundout by Jackson Merrill that scored Cronenworth.
His comeback against Rea began with Higashioka’s two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth, which was followed by Arráez’s second home run of the season.
Cronenworth’s home run and Machado’s double ended Rea’s night with one out in the sixth, and left-hander Jared Koenig got one out before Solano dropped a single to center field.
Stephen Kolek came on for Cosgrove and allowed two one-out singles, the first to Yelich and the second to a slow grounder by Adames that stopped as he touched third base.
Sal Frelick followed with a grounder to Kim, who stepped on second base and then threw wide to first. The ball bounced off the side wall as Yelich raced home to tie the game at 5-5.
After Cronenworth gave them the lead, singles by Machado and Merrill loaded the bases before a walk by Solano forced Cronenworth and a fielder’s choice grounder by Kim forced Machado.
Cronenworth’s final hit, a two-out double in the eighth, was followed by an RBI single from Machado.
Enyel De Los Santos replaced Kolek with one out and two on in the eighth and turned into a double play to end the inning. He then closed out the ninth inning, allowing just a two-out single and giving tired closer Robert Suarez a second straight day of rest.
“That fourth run was huge,” Shildt said. “And De Lo did his job, which makes it that much better.”
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