Kotsay's pinch-hit homer lifts San Diego over Brewers

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Ex-Brewer Mark Kotsay hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the eighth inning last night to break a scoreless tie, and give San Diego a 2-0 home victory over Milwaukee. The homer came off Francisco Rodriguez, who took the loss and fell to 0-and-3. The veteran Kotsay was a pinch-hitting specialist for the Brewers last year, but he left as a free agent to join his home-town Padres. Rodriguez said Kotsay hit a pitch right down the middle. And K-Rod blamed himself for a lack of consistency this season. He has given up at least two runs in four of his 14 appearances. Starters Shaun Marcum and Edinson Volquez were engaged in a pitcher’s duel, and left after seven scoreless innings with nothing to show for it. Both gave up three hits and four walks. Marcum struck out six Padres, while Volquez fanned four. Andrew Cashner got the win in relief. He’s 2-and-1. Huston Street earned his fourth save, as the Padres ended a three-game losing streak. Milwaukee mustered only three singles for the night, and the Padres only needed five hits to win. The Padres will try to win the first series of the year when they play the rubber game with the Brewers this evening. Former Brewer Jeff Suppan is being called up from Triple-“A” to start for the Padres, after Cory Luebke came down with shoulder tightness. Yovani Gallardo will start for the Brew Crew.

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Ryan Braun reached a milestone when he stole second base in last night’s Milwaukee loss at San Diego. Braun became only the fourth Brewer with both 100 career homers and 100 stolen bases. His teammate Rickie Weeks is already in that group, joining Hall-of-Famers Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. Young had 251 homers and 271 stolen bases in his career – while Molitor belted 160 homers and stole 412 bases in a Milwaukee uniform. Also, the Brewers named Braun their player-of-the-month for April. He finished the month with his three-homer game at San Diego on Monday night. That gave him seven homers for April, along with 17 R-B-I’s and a .294 batting average. Zack Greinke was named the Brewers’ pitcher-of-the-month. He went 3-and-1 in five starts with a three-point-nine-four E-R-A.

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