Luis Rengifo knocked in three runs Thursday and Kyle Harrison tossed five scoreless innings to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-1 defeat of the visiting San Diego Padres.
Harrison (4-1) scattered five hits and walked none while fanning seven as Milwaukee earned the series victory. The Brewers came within an out of a shutout before Sung-Mun Song knocked in a run in the ninth with a fielder’s choice grounder.
Griffin Canning (0-2) struggled mightily in his 1 2/3 innings, yielding five hits and six runs with four walks and two strikeouts. Canning has allowed 12 runs in his last two starts over only six innings.
Canning’s trouble was mostly self-induced during a three-run first inning. After fanning Jackson Chourio at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat, Canning then walked the next four hitters. Andrew Vaughn’s free pass scored Bryce Turang.
That was followed by Rengifo’s two-run single up the middle. Canning needed 42 pitches, the most he’s thrown in an inning in his career, to get three outs.
Canning made more trouble for himself in the second when he made a two-base throwing error after David Hamilton led off with a single. Turang ripped an RBI double to left-center and Gary Sanchez added a run-scoring double with two outs. Vaughn’s RBI single ended Canning’s rough outing.
Rengifo capped Milwaukee’s scoring in the fourth when he slapped a run-scoring single up the middle that plated Vaughn, who doubled with one out. Rengifo, Vaughn and Garrett Mitchell each collected two of the Brewers’ 10 hits. Mitchell doubled twice.
Rengifo also delivered defensively, diving to his left to snag Gavin Sheets’ grounder with two outs in the first and then throw him out to deny him a possible two-run single. Manny Machado singled with two outs and reached third on Miguel Andujar’s double.
Harrison also skated around a first-and-third, one-out jam in the fourth after consecutive singles by Sheets and Ramon Laureano. Nick Castellanos fanned on a 2-2 fastball and Freddy Fermin grounded out.
Castellanos was the only San Diego batter with two hits.
