MILWAUKEE — Joe Musgrove warmed up as the ballpark full of Midwesterners sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and then the “Beer Barrel Polka” in the middle of the seventh inning Friday night at American Family Field.
It had been almost 14 months, and the Padres had played 205 games since the last time he made history.
Nearly 14 months after he became the first pitcher in 8,206 Padres games to throw a no-hitter, the right-hander nearly did it again.
He got through the seventh inning and made it two outs into the eighth before Kolten Wong sent the first pitch he saw — and the 110th thrown by Musgrove — bouncing off the wall in right field for a double.
The inning was over one batter later, and the Padres scored the final run of their 7-0 victory in the ninth.
Craig Stammen pitched a perfect ninth inning to close out their first victory in five games.
Musgrove — whose no-hitter in Texas came on April 9, 2021 — outdueled the reigning National League Cy Young winner and did plenty to further his candidacy for that award this season. With his eight scoreless innings, he improved to 6-0 and lowered his ERA to an NL-leading 1.64 over 66 innings.
The Padres scored a run in the first, another in the second and three more in the fourth on Manny Machado’s ninth home run of the season. They added a run in the fifth to go up 6-0.
Rarely does a plan come together in the way it did Friday night. Rarer still when the opposing starting pitcher is Corbin Burnes.
But the Padres got to Burnes early again, and this time they did so often.
The right-hander, who entered the game with a 1.95 ERA, was gone after 3 2/3 innings having thrown 95 pitches and allowed five runs on eight hits. No team had gotten as many of either against him this season.
The scoring began in the first inning when Machado walked, Eric Hosmer singled and Luke Voit bounced a double over the wall in left-center field.
The Padres scored in the first inning against Burnes on May 24 at Petco Park and then didn’t score again, as he went six innings and three relievers finished off a 4-1 Brewers victory.
A little early sizzle followed by fizzle has been a recurring story, and it was perhaps never worse than Wednesday in St. Louis, when they scored a run and made Dakota Hudson throw 28 pitches in the first inning before going down meekly the next six innings against him.
They arrived in Milwaukee and talked collectively about maintaining the urgency throughout games, and on Thursday did so. They scored by playing some small ball and hitting the long ball. They scored in three innings, one of them late. They led 4-1 going into the ninth inning before closer Taylor Rogers imploded and the Brewers won 5-4 on a walk-off single.
Friday’s plan was similar, with added emphasis on grinding down Burnes.
“Even if you can’t get to him, you try to wait him out and make him work,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said before the game. “… This is a guy you just go up there swinging right away, you’re gonna make some early-count outs and probably allow him to go deep in the game.”
The Padres pounced on pitches in the zone and hardly chased ones outside the zone, which is difficult to do against Burnes, who gets more chase than all but four pitchers in the major leagues.
Friday was just Burnes’ second start ever in which he allowed five or more runs and went four or fewer innings.
The Padres added a run in the second when Trent Grisham lined a one-out double down the right field line and Jurickson Profar bounced a two-out single into right field.
Machado followed Austin Nola’s walk and Profar’s single by blasting the seventh pitch of his at-bat just over the wall in left field.
Grisham doubled again in the fifth, promptly stole third and scored on a single by Profar. Rookie José Azocar hit his first career triple and scored on Ha-Seong Kim’s single in the ninth.
