Brewers third baseman continues hot streak with walk-off homer on Saturday night

What a rollercoaster of a win. The Milwaukee Brewers went from a dormant offense to a two-run lead, to a blown save, to a walk-off winner — all on national television against one of the best teams in the National League, the San Diego Padres. While there are several performances worth highlighting in this one, the "hero shot" goes to Caleb Durbin, the Brewers’ scrappy third baseman who unleashed on a high fastball in the bottom of the ninth to break the tie and send Brewers fans home happy.

The game started out as a pitchers’ duel. Padres starter Stephen Kolek pitched into the sixth inning and didn't allow a run, despite handing out four free passes to the Brewers' offense. His outing was heavily aided by two inning-ending ground-ball double plays that allowed him to quickly escape the second and third innings. With Kolek's impressive performance, it was the Padres’ usually lock-down bullpen that faltered in last night's loss, but more on that later.

Kolek's counterpart, Brewers' starter José Quintana, delivered a gutsy performance, and while he didn't have his best stuff, he battled through five innings and allowed just one earned run. The term “gutsy” gets thrown around a lot when a starting pitcher toughs out a difficult outing, but Quintana earned it with his performance last night, as evidenced by one particular pitch in the top of the fourth inning.

With runners on second and third, and one out, Quintana worked a full count to Padres first baseman Jake Cronenworth. Despite not locating his breaking ball all night, Quintana dropped a perfectly placed slurve right on the outside corner to get Cronenworth looking. The pitch selection and the execution given the situation were gutsy. As pointed out by A.J. Pierzynski on last night's FOX broadcast, if he hadn’t executed that pitch, the Padres load the bases with less than two outs, and the next batter, Elias Díaz, who singled on a ground ball through the right side, drives in two runs instead of one, completely changing the entire game.

With Quintana doing his job to keep the game close, and Nick Mears, Abner Uribe, and Jared Koenig all posting scoreless innings in relief, the Brewers' offense needed some life. Despite drawing 10 walks in the first 15 innings of the series, they had yet to score a run against the Padres pitching staff, but that all changed in the bottom of the seventh. After Isaac Collins, who reached base four times last night, and Caleb Durbin each singled with one out, the Brewers had runners on the corners with Joey Ortiz coming to the plate. However, manager Pat Murphy went to his bench and elected to have Jake Bauers pinch hit in Ortiz's stead. Bauers sent a towering fly ball to center field, scoring Collins from third, breaking the Brewers’ scoreless streak, and tying the game at one apiece.

The Brewers offense didn't stop in the seventh inning. They came back in the following inning and loaded the bases for Rhys Hoskins. Just like Bauers, Hoskins made use of the sacrifice fly, sending one to deep left field that allowed Christian Yelich to score from third base. Collins, the subsequent batter, dumped a bloop single into shallow left, scoring William Contreras from second base and giving the Crew a 3-1 lead with just three outs to get.

Caleb Durbin makes up for Trevor Megill's blown save with a crowd-stunning walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth

However, those three outs did not come easily, nor without multiple runs scored by the Padres offense. Trevor Megill, who hadn't blown a save since April 12, stared down one of the best contact hitters in the game, Luis Arraez, with two outs, runners on second and third, and a two-run lead. Arraez slapped one down the left field line that just snuck into fair territory and tied up the game. Megill did get the next batter, Manny Machado, to roll over to short, sending the game to the bottom of the ninth tied at 3-3.

Rather than turn to their elite closer, Robert Suarez, who earned the save for them in Friday night's contest, the Padres turned to rookie reliever David Morgan, who has tossed just 5.1 major league innings. Leading off for the Crew in the bottom of the ninth was Fond du Lac Dock Spiders legend, Caleb Durbin.

On the first pitch, Durbin jumped on a 98 MPH heater an inch above the zone and sent it over the fence and into the Brewers' bullpen in left. With just his second homer of his big league career, Durbin walked it off against one of the best bullpens in baseball.

Durbin, who isn't known for his power, has been on an absolute tear as of late. Following an electric debut game, Durbin went cold for about a month, but in his last seven games, he's slashing .269/.333/.556 with five extra base hits and just two strikeouts in 27 at-bats. He's more closely resembling the player that both he and the Brewers' front office know he can be.

The Brewers go for their fourth straight series win and their six straight series tie or better on Sunday afternoon. Freddy Peralta will take the mound first for Milwaukee, while the Padres will send Ryan Bergert out first. The game is set to start at 12:05 p.m. CT and will be broadcast nationally once again — this time through the Roku Channel. Stay tuned for more on how to watch.