16. Miller Park - August 7, 2018

The next part of the trip was heading to Milwaukee. It was about a five-and-a-half hour drive. There is nothing in Wisconsin, outside of the major cities. I don't get how people live out here.

We finally made it to Milwaukee. Driving by the park the day before, the stadium is huge. The roof itself is big. Walking up to it, it looks like a football stadium. If you're visiting it for the first time, it's hard to miss.

The three of us stayed in this motel not too far from the stadium, right off the highway. The only good thing about this place was that there was a bar attached. One of us had a few too many drinks the first night we were there.

A view of the stadium and field

On game day, the gates opened 90 minutes before the game, a little late compared to other stadiums. I don't mind. I really don't need to see batting practice.

Getting to the stadium was fine, some traffic though. But that's too be expected when there's only one highway leading to the stadium.

Parking was cheap for the official stadium lots. $12 for a weekday game. They had a walkway from each parking lot leading to the stadium, making it easier to walk between lots.

There was no skyline because of the back wall being high for the retractable roof. While I didn't have seats in my usual section, I went up to the upper section behind the plate. It's a nice view but nothing to look at outside of the stadium.

The stadium is a little behind on travel between levels. There were few escalators, no elevators for the public and just long ramps. It was a terror walking down. Thank God I was able to sit for three hours to rest up.

There is a lot to do around the park for both kids and adults. They had speed pitch and running the bases for kids. There were a lot of different food choices compared to just the boring concession stands. Like Cleveland, I give Milwaukee credit for having unique food options.

My friends aren't fans of the seats I want to sit in. They want to sit as close to the field as possible. I appeased them here and we sat in the first row in right field. Well, technically not the first row because there's like an exclusive club of people sitting at ground level behind the fence, but we're right behind them.

A view of the field from center field

It was actually a cool view. Because of how many fly balls the Brewers hit, we ended up on TV a couple of times. We never caught a home run, though we were close.

The game featured two of the league's worst starting pitchers in Clayton Richard (SD) and Chase Anderson (MIL).

Richard pitched five innings and allowed five runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out three. Anderson gave up four runs on four walks and five hits and struck out four over 4.2 innings.

The game started off hot with two two-run home runs in the first inning from Jesus Aguilar and Mike Moustakas. The San Diego Padres scored two in the top of the third inning off of a Manuel Margot single. Moustakas had a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning. Those would be the only runs the Brewers score all game.

The Padres piled on for the rest of the game. Franmil Reyes hit a solo home run in the fourth. Margot hit his own solo homer in the fifth. He then hit a sac fly in the sixth. Reyes drove in two more runs with a double in the seventh. Hunter Renfroe hit a two-run home run in the eighth. Margot hit a triple in the ninth that brought home two more runs.

The Brewers went down in order in the bottom of the ninth. We did not stay for the final inning. We left after the bottom of the eighth. This is one of the few times I left a game before the last out was recorded. I didn't mind, the game was a blowout anyway.

Hot Dog Review: They had brown mustard and chopped onions at the condiments table. The hot dog itself was a little too juicy, no crunch but the toppings helped. Second-best hot dog of the trip.

There wasn't much to do in Milwaukee but the stadium was worth the trip.