MILWAUKEE -- The Padres hope to be a year from now where the Brewers currently find themselves: smack in the middle of a September playoff race.\n\nIf the Padres keep pitching the way they have against the Brewers this week, it’s not difficult to imagine that scenario unfolding next fall.\n\nAfter
Starting for just the 13th time since he returned in July from Tommy John surgery, Lamet held the Brewers to one run on three hits and three walks while throwing 64 of his 98 pitches for strikes.\n\n\"I'm just trying to do my part,\" Lamet said. \"We're a family here. We support each other. When somebody goes out and has a good outing, we want to go out there and do the best we can, too.\"\n\nLamet was dominant from the opening pitch and had five strikeouts after two innings of work. He got an unexpected boost in the third when shortstop
Starting for just the second time in his big league career, the rookie wasn't sure at first that the ball was going to go out.\n\n\"I hit it well but saw the outfielder, and I wasn't sure if it was going to go,” Mejias-Brean said. “So I sped up a bit. Then I saw it bounce over the top. It was a big relief.”\n\nLamet was thrilled, too.\n\n\"I wanted him to enjoy it,” Lamet said, “and after he hit that, I wanted to go back out there and do my part. I wanted to go out there, dominate and shut them down.\"\n\nHe did just that, stranding a pair runners after two walks in the bottom of the inning with two more strikeouts. In the fourth inning, Ben Gamel's two-out single in the fourth gave Milwaukee its first hit of the game. Lamet then fanned Cory Spangenberg to get out of that inning and added two more strikeouts to his total in the fifth.
\n\nDinelson Lamet has 14 strikeouts so far tonight.
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 19, 2019
That's the most by any Padres pitcher since Jake Peavy had 16 on April 25, 2007, tying the franchise record he'd set in 2006.
Mike Moustakas looked at strike three to open the Brewers' sixth. Keston Hiura followed with his 17th home run of the season, cutting the Padres' lead in half, but again Lamet came up big, striking out two more to get out of the inning and bringing his night to an end.\n\n\"Keston Hiura put a really good swing on one pitch today,” Green said, “but other than that, there wasn't a lot of hard contact. It was one of those days you look up and he had 14 punch-outs before you knew it -- and he earned every one of them.\"\n\nLamet's 14 strikeouts were tied for the fourth-most by a pitcher at Miller Park. Ben Sheets holds the record with 18 against the Braves on May 5, 2016.\n\nLamet also became the 13th pitcher since 1908 to record at least 14 strikeouts in six or fewer innings.\n\n\"He was good,\" catcher
Lamet's performance almost went for naught.\n\nIn the seventh inning, Spangenberg reached on a leadoff walk by reliever