Padres Force Game 4: 3 Takeaways As San Diego Holds Off Brewers In NLDS

With their season on the brink of ending, the Padres refused to go down quietly.

Down 0-2 to the Brewers, the best team in baseball with 103 regular-season wins, San Diego battled in the face of elimination and came through with an adventurous 4-3 win that kept their October dreams alive.

This series has had no shortage of bizarre plays and wild last-minute finishes and Game 3 was no different. The Padres still trail in the NLDS, 2-1, but now they have the momentum, and that can be a dangerous thing. 

Here are my takeaways:

(Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

The Padres desperately could’ve used their electric closer in the late innings of Tuesday night’s tight, one-run game. But right-hander Mason Miller was placed on the paternity list hours before first pitch. He’s expected to miss anywhere from one to three days for the birth of his first child. With their backs up against the wall, and the Padres trying to hang on to a tiny 4-3 lead without Miller, they went to their next best option.

Enter: a ruthless Michael King. 

King, making his best impression of Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, entered the eighth inning from the bullpen. He had just pitched five one-run innings against Milwaukee in Game 2 of the NLDS, striking out six batters and limiting the Brewers to just three hits. King returned to the mound Tuesday night on just two days’ rest. While it seemed like a ridiculous move in the moment, he had been there before many, many times. 

King switched between the rotation and the bullpen throughout his five years with the Yankees. He finished 24 games and collected seven saves in 115 games in that span. It wasn’t until he was sent to the Padres in the notorious Juan Soto trade ahead of the 2024 season that San Diego transformed King into a full-time starter. That’s part of why it was easy to tell just how comfortable King was pitching out of the bullpen in a do-or-die game for the Padres. 

He took care of business in the eighth, retiring three of his four batters faced, with his only blemish that inning being a single to Brewers pinch-hitter David Hamilton. But the ninth inning proved trickier as he worked around a pair of walks. The Brewers had the go-ahead run on base with one out, but Padres manager Craig Stammen stuck with King, and he was rewarded for that gutsy decision.

On the first pitch of the next at-bat, Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich ripped a 107.1 mph screamer to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who was ready. Bogaerts charged second base for the first out, then fired to first for the final out of the game, completing the expected double play to end the wild Game 3 and bring the Padres back to life.

(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

This was one way to eliminate all the momentum the Brewers had just garnered. Moments after Milwaukee tied the game, Padres second baseman and No. 9 hitter Jake Cronenworth led off the bottom of the fifth inning and pounced on the first pitch from Brewers left-hander JoJo Romero. Cronenworth pummeled his 80 mph sweeper, low and breaking away, into the right-field seats for the go-ahead home run. Just like that, the Padres were back in front, 3-2.

What a relief this must have been for Cronenworth, who entered that fifth-inning at-bat having gone 1-for-13 in this postseason. Plus, he had compounded his poor performance at the plate by making a couple of mistakes in the dirt in Game 2’s loss to Milwaukee, including a questionable first step on Jackson Chourio’s walkoff single in the ninth inning on Sunday. 

Cronenworth made up for those blunders with some good old-fashioned left-on-left crime on Tuesday. He had gone yard against a left-hander just once in 93 plate appearances in the regular season this year. As for Romero, that was the fifth home run he’d allowed to a left-handed hitter this season. 

(Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Have you ever heard of a 242-foot sacrifice fly? Look no further than the way the Brewers scored the tying run in the fifth inning to understand how difficult it is for opposing teams to play against them. 

Milwaukee got two men on base after back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. The lineup moved those two men into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Then Jackson Chourio hit a fly ball to shallow left field. Padres left fielder Dustin Harris got under it, caught the ball, and held onto it. In the several seconds it took Harris to get rid of the ball, Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt had already tagged third base and was well on his way home. By the time Harris’ throw reached the dish, it was too late. Pratt scored easily on Chourio’s sacrifice fly, tying the game at 2-2.

This is what the Brewers do. They put pressure on the defense and force opposing teams to make near-perfect plays in order to get the out. Harris and the Padres seemed like they were caught off guard by Pratt’s decision to run home. That was their first mistake. They should know, by now, that the Brewers will take every extra inch given to them. 

Their other mistake was letting Harris, the left fielder, catch Chourio’s fly ball instead of Merrill, the center fielder. Merrill would’ve had the stronger throw home and the faster reflexes to get rid of the ball sooner. But that would’ve required San Diego to anticipate plays before they happen. Neglecting to do so gives the Brewers the edge, more often than not. The Padres learned that the hard way in the top of the fifth inning on Tuesday.

3 ½. What’s Next?

The Padres will try to keep the good times rolling in Wednesday night’s Game 4 with very little turnaround time. San Diego has to win the next two games straight to eliminate the Brew Crew and advance to the NLCS. Milwaukee, meanwhile, just needs to win one — with home-field advantage in Game 5 if the series gets to that point. As of the final out of Tuesday’s Game 3, neither team had announced a starting pitcher for Game 4.