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SD@MIL: Greinke fans nine in home debut for Brewers

MILWAUKEE -- You'll have to forgive Jonathan Lucroy, the Brewers' second-year catcher, who knew the reporters were on deadline but just couldn't stop giggling. That's how much fun he had handling Zack Greinke's first few innings at Miller Park.

"It's like getting a new toy to play with," Lucroy said.

The Brewers unwrapped that new toy for the home fans on Monday, and Greinke didn't disappoint. He came out firing 94-mph fastballs, faced only a pair of three-ball counts all night and had just enough in his right arm for six quality innings of a 4-3 Brewers win over the Padres.

Second baseman Rickie Weeks homered and drove in a pair of runs to spark an offense that had been slumping, and he teamed with shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt for a spectacular eighth-inning double play that might have saved the game. The Brewers started anew at home after a dismal 2-8 road trip.

But the 27,058 fans in the stands were there mostly for Greinke, Milwaukee's prized offseason pick-up, whose debut was delayed by a Spring Training spill on the basketball court. Greinke's cracked left rib disabled him until last week in Atlanta, when he slogged through four average innings. On Monday, he looked much more like himself and had a favorable matchup, to boot.

Greinke limited the offense-challenged Padres to two runs on five hits in six innings, with nine strikeouts and no walks. He flashed a ridiculous 29-mph differential between those 94-mph fastballs and the 65-mph curve he flipped at Padres pitcher Mat Latos in the fifth inning.

Greinke doesn't use that pitch much anymore, but he threw it in that spot for two reasons. First, because Latos had struck him out in the previous half-inning and made him look bad. Second, Greinke said, because, "the fans like it."

That the fans were on Greinke's mind qualified as notable. But with nearly 30,000 people waving white rally towels made just for this occasion, Greinke made sure to look up.

"I usually don't notice the fans so much," Greinke said. "Having them there today was actually real nice. It got me a little extra excited, especially early on in the game. It was great. I was real impressed with them today. Usually, I don't notice that stuff."

On his way to the 2009 American League Cy Young Award, Greinke typically felt his way through the early innings and saw his velocity and command improve as nights wore on. On Monday, perhaps because of those rally towels, perhaps because he was upset about his outing five days earlier, perhaps just because, it was the opposite. Greinke's first seven pitches were fastballs, all but one 93 or 94 mph. He carved through the Padres in the first inning on 10 pitches, eight of them strikes.

By the sixth, when Greinke's spot in the lineup came around, manager Ron Roenicke decided it was enough. Greinke threw 89 pitches, 59 for strikes.

"Hopefully, next start it will be better," Greinke said. "But it might take a couple of games to get where I can throw 110 pitches every time and be strong the whole time."

"With the effort he put into it from the first batter on, we felt like him finishing at 89 pitches was a good outing for him," Roenicke said. "I saw him a lot in the other league, and from the first batter on today, that's as hard as I've seen him go."

Greinke also contributed to what qualified as an offensive outburst for the slumping Brewers, who had scored 17 total runs on their long road trip and were limited to zero or one run six times.

Greinke's infield hit came amid three successive Brewers singles, including Weeks' RBI hit for a 2-0 lead. With Lucroy at first base, Greinke showed bunt, then pulled the bat back and slashed a single to shortstop to push the runner into scoring position.

"I wasn't feeling real comfortable getting the bunt down," Greinke said. "I was like, 'If he comes in, just try to slap it somewhere.' It ended up working out. Good thing it was a strike. I probably would have swung at it no matter where it was thrown."

Weeks added insurance with a home run leading off the fifth. It was his seventh this season, and the Brewers' ninth consecutive solo home run. Lucroy doubled home a key insurance run in the sixth.

The Brewers' bullpen took over from there. LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Kameron Loe surrendered a run in an eighth inning that could have been much worse had Betancourt not made a ridiculous, behind-the-back flip to initiate a rally-killing double play, and John Axford pitched the ninth for his first save since April 26.

Greinke logged his first National League win.

"He threw the ball well ... we haven't seen a lot of him live," Padres manager Bud Black said. "You can see where he had success. His fastball was crisp. He repeated his delivery. He threw a lot of strikes."

Not surprisingly, the Brewers were slightly more enthusiastic.

"I think Zack is real happy here," first baseman Prince Fielder said. "We were excited to see him [in his Brewers debut], even though we didn't win the game, because he still had good stuff. Now you see that he's really right."

Said Lucroy, between giggles: "Everything is 'plus.' They asked me that earlier, how good it was, and everything is just real live. Electric. It's moving. He can locate it. He has four pretty good pitches and he throws them all for strikes."

He was laughing again.

"I'm laughing because it was a lot of fun," Lucroy said. "I had a lot of fun tonight. It's always special to catch somebody when he's on like that. I'll tell you what, if he's on like that every game, it's going to be a good year."

Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brew Beat, and follow him on Twitter at @AdamMcCalvy. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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