Padres' season ends at Petco: Brewers take Game 4, 3-1, and the series
San Diego's only run came on a Fernando Tatis Jr. homer, and Garrett Mitchell stole a tying homer from Manny Machado in the eighth, as Milwaukee ended the Padres' season Wednesday night. The Brewers face the Dodgers in a National League Championship Series rematch.
SAN DIEGO: The Padres' season ended the way their October went, one clutch hit short. The Milwaukee Brewers beat San Diego 3-1 in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night at Petco Park, taking the best-of-five series 3-1 and moving on to a National League Championship Series rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Milwaukee opened the scoring in the third inning against Padres starter Walker Buehler, when Sal Frelick singled, stole second, and scored on Garrett Mitchell's line single to center. Fernando Tatis Jr. answered in the bottom half, launching a 429-foot solo homer off Brewers starter and former Padre Robert Gasser to tie it 1-1. It was the only run the Padres would score.
The fifth inning broke it open for Milwaukee. Mitchell tripled just inside the first base line off Robbie Ray to start the frame, and one out later Jackson Chourio ripped a single up the middle to bring him home. In the sixth, Jake Bauers led off with a single off Jason Adam, Cooper Pratt followed with a ground-rule double, and Frelick's sacrifice fly scored Bauers for a 3-1 lead. San Diego finished with three hits. The Padres had loaded the bases in the first, on a Jackson Merrill single and a Manny Machado bunt single, but could not score.
Machado said San Diego was facing the best team in baseball and one of the best pitching staffs, and that the Padres had opportunities but did not come up with the clutch hit.
The catch that ended it
The closest San Diego came to life was the eighth. Tatis on first, one out, Machado driving a deep ball to center off Abner Uribe. Mitchell tracked it back and reached above the wall to haul it in, ending what looked like a game-tying two-run homer.
Mitchell said he got a good read off the bat and got to the wall as quickly as he could to set his feet. Machado could only admire it: "It's unfortunate. Nice play. I couldn't have hit it harder."
"We had a couple of big pitches and a couple of big swings that didn't quite go our way," Padres general manager A.J. Preller said. "I thought Manny's ball was going out tonight."
A quiet, efficient dismantling
Milwaukee's pitching did the rest. Gasser, a former Padre, gave the Brewers four innings of one-run ball on 56 pitches. Aaron Ashby took over for three scoreless, hitless innings, striking out three on 38 pitches, and Trevor Megill struck out two in a perfect ninth for his second save of the series. Mason Miller had kept San Diego alive in the seventh, escaping a bases-loaded jam on 21 pitches after Cooper Pratt lined out to center.
Chourio's RBI was the 17th of his postseason career, breaking the Brewers' franchise mark previously held by Ryan Braun. The win snapped Milwaukee's 12-game postseason road losing streak, dating to 2018 and tying the major league record, and came against a Padres team that had won 19 of its final 22 regular-season games.
"It's just like a quiet, subtle confidence. It's not showboaty. It's just everyone who is in this clubhouse, from the front office to the staff, everyone believes," Mitchell said.
A somber clubhouse and a rematch ahead
San Diego's players reflected on the season after the handshakes and hugs. "They are so special," Tatis said of his teammates, after going 1 for 3 with the homer and a walk. "We went through so many ups and downs this year."
Musgrove said it never feels good to be eliminated, though with time you can look back at the positives of the season.
The four games were decided by five combined runs. Milwaukee, which won a franchise-record 103 games in the regular season, will open Game 1 of the NLCS at home on Sunday, Oct. 11, against the Dodgers, who advanced Wednesday by beating the Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers swept the Brewers in last year's NLCS. Brewers manager Pat Murphy said it is different this year, that the Brewers earned home-field advantage in the regular season and are going in to beat the Dodgers no matter who they have.
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