The Milwaukee Brewers silenced Petco Park on Wednesday night, eliminating the San Diego Padres with a 3-1 victory in Game 4 of the National League Division Series and advancing to the NLCS for the second consecutive season.
Milwaukee, the owner of baseball's best regular-season record, will now face the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers — a sequel to last October's NLCS, which the Dodgers swept in four games.
Tatis provides a flicker, then the offense goes quiet
San Diego arrived hoping to force a decisive fifth game, and Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the sold-out crowd of 47,712 something to believe in. Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, Tatis launched a solo home run off Brewers starter Robert Gasser, capping the blast with a towering bat flip as the ballpark erupted.
It proved to be the Padres' last celebration of the night. Milwaukee had struck first when Sal Frelick singled, stole second and scored on Garrett Mitchell's RBI single — the first time the Brewers had scored first in the series.
Walker Buehler, making his first postseason appearance since closing out the 2024 World Series for the Dodgers, opened with a six-pitch first inning. But Padres manager Craig Stammen pulled him in the fourth after a leadoff single to William Contreras, with four left-handed hitters approaching, and summoned Robbie Ray, who had started Game 1.
The decisive fifth
Mitchell opened the fifth with a triple down the right-field line, and Jackson Chourio followed with the go-ahead RBI single to restore Milwaukee's lead at 2-1. The Brewers added insurance in the sixth: Jake Bauers singled off Jason Adam, Cooper Pratt hammered a ground-rule double that bounced off the Western Metal Supply building, and Frelick delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
The Milwaukee bullpen — Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill combined — then pitched five shutout innings of relief. The closest the Padres came to answering was in the eighth, when Manny Machado appeared to hit a game-tying homer to right-center, only for Mitchell to leap above the wall and rob him.
What it means
For Milwaukee, the victory validates a 103-win regular season and sends the Brewers back to the championship series with unfinished business against Los Angeles. The Dodgers own baseball's last two World Series trophies — and Milwaukee now gets another chance to deny them a third.
For San Diego, another October of enormous expectations ended in silence. The Padres entered the postseason among baseball's hottest teams but could not turn talent into runs when the stakes were highest. Their search for a first World Series championship continues.
Sources: New York Post
Milwaukee, the owner of baseball's best regular-season record, will now face the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers — a sequel to last October's NLCS, which the Dodgers swept in four games.
Tatis provides a flicker, then the offense goes quiet
San Diego arrived hoping to force a decisive fifth game, and Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the sold-out crowd of 47,712 something to believe in. Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, Tatis launched a solo home run off Brewers starter Robert Gasser, capping the blast with a towering bat flip as the ballpark erupted.
It proved to be the Padres' last celebration of the night. Milwaukee had struck first when Sal Frelick singled, stole second and scored on Garrett Mitchell's RBI single — the first time the Brewers had scored first in the series.
Walker Buehler, making his first postseason appearance since closing out the 2024 World Series for the Dodgers, opened with a six-pitch first inning. But Padres manager Craig Stammen pulled him in the fourth after a leadoff single to William Contreras, with four left-handed hitters approaching, and summoned Robbie Ray, who had started Game 1.
The decisive fifth
Mitchell opened the fifth with a triple down the right-field line, and Jackson Chourio followed with the go-ahead RBI single to restore Milwaukee's lead at 2-1. The Brewers added insurance in the sixth: Jake Bauers singled off Jason Adam, Cooper Pratt hammered a ground-rule double that bounced off the Western Metal Supply building, and Frelick delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
The Milwaukee bullpen — Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill combined — then pitched five shutout innings of relief. The closest the Padres came to answering was in the eighth, when Manny Machado appeared to hit a game-tying homer to right-center, only for Mitchell to leap above the wall and rob him.
What it means
For Milwaukee, the victory validates a 103-win regular season and sends the Brewers back to the championship series with unfinished business against Los Angeles. The Dodgers own baseball's last two World Series trophies — and Milwaukee now gets another chance to deny them a third.
For San Diego, another October of enormous expectations ended in silence. The Padres entered the postseason among baseball's hottest teams but could not turn talent into runs when the stakes were highest. Their search for a first World Series championship continues.
Sources: New York Post
