Spring training update: Jay Groome takes loss in final spring start

A Padres’ split-squad lost 4-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday afternoon at American Family Fields of Phoenix.

Batters’ box: Jake Cronenworth continued a blistering spring, going 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored to lift his team-best Cactus League OPS to 1.239 in 15 games. … Trent Grisham went 2-for-4 and Taylor Kohlwey went 2-for-3. … Rougned Odor went 3-for-4, driving in the Padres’ only runs of the game. … Catcher Pedro Severino went 2-for-4. … Grisham, shortstop Tim Lopes and third baseman Brandon Dixon all struck out twice.

Balls and strikes: Competing for a spot on the rotation or in long relief, lefty Jay Groome allowed his first runs of the spring in a start which he was removed during a lengthy second inning and returned for two more frames. All told, Groome allowed four runs — two earned — on five hits, three walks and a hit batter in 3 1/3 innings. Former Padres catcher Victor Caratini’s first-pitch homer in the third was the hardest-hit ball. Groome also might have been spared any damage at all in that long second had Lopes turned a long-shot double play at short; instead he committed his second error of the spring. … Righty Lake Bachar walked two before getting the final two outs of the second inning. … Lefties Aaron Brooks, Ray Kerr and Jared Koenig and righty Sean Poppen all turned in scoreless innings.

Extra bases: Kai Murphy went 0-for-1off the bench and finished the game in left field in front of father Pat Murphy, the Brewers’ bench coach. The Padres signed Kai Murphy, 22, as an undrafted free agent out of his dad’s old college program at Arizona State. Kai Murphy hit .250/.340/.318 with three steals and seven RBIs in 22 games while progressing to low Single-A Lake Elsinore last summer. The elder Murphy managed Padres minor league affiliates from 2011 until he was asked to finished the 2015 season as the interim big-league skipper after Bud Black’s firing. Kai Murphy spent a lot of that summer around the Padres’ clubhouse. … Groome’s wild afternoon included a pitch-clock violation in the first inning, giving former Padres 2B Luis Urias a free ball ahead of his first of two walks worked off the Padres’ starting pitcher. … Both Odor and right fielder José Azocar were picked off first base after singles. … Odor made a diving stop to his left to help Groome out of a busy first inning without giving up a run.