The Milwaukee Brewers silenced Petco Park on Wednesday night, beating the San Diego Padres 3-1 in Game 4 of the NLDS to win the series three games to one and advance to the National League Championship Series. The hero was Garrett Mitchell, who tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning — then robbed Manny Machado of a potential game-tying home run in the eighth.
With the win, Milwaukee snapped its 12-game postseason road losing streak, which had tied the major-league record and dated back to 2018, according to Reuters. Now comes the real test: a rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS for the second straight season.
How the Brewers Closed Out the Padres in NLDS Game 4
The Padres’ only real moment of joy came in the third inning. With San Diego trailing 1-0, Fernando Tatis Jr. launched a solo home run off Brewers starter Robert Gasser, sending the sold-out crowd of 47,712 at Petco Park into a frenzy. The Dominican superstar punctuated the blast with a towering bat flip, briefly giving the Padres life.
But that was the last time San Diego celebrated. Tatis’s homer was the Padres’ only extra-base hit of the night, and the offense went silent over the final six innings.
Mitchell took over from there. He tripled in the fifth and scored the go-ahead run on Jackson Chourio’s RBI single — a hit that gave the 22-year-old 17 career postseason RBIs, breaking Ryan Braun’s Brewers franchise record, per Reuters. Mitchell then made the defensive play of the postseason in the eighth: with a runner on and one out, Machado launched a deep drive to center off Abner Uribe, a ball that traveled 406 feet — and Mitchell hauled it in just above the short wall to thwart the tying homer.
“Just got a good jump off the bat,” Mitchell said afterward. “When I got to the wall, I just had to stay composed and make the catch. I didn’t really have to jump. I knew the wall isn’t as high as at other fields.”
On the mound, Gasser made his first playoff start and went four innings, allowing just one run and three hits. Aaron Ashby (1-0) then tossed three innings of scoreless, hitless relief — 38 pitches, three strikeouts, two walks — and Trevor Megill struck out two in a perfect ninth for his second save of the series.
San Diego had chances. The Padres left the bases loaded in the first without scoring, and managed only one other runner from the second through the seventh. “You’re facing the best team in baseball, and one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball, if not the best,” Machado said after the game. “We had opportunities there and we didn’t come up with the clutch hit and they did.”
Brewers Set Up NLCS Rematch vs. Dodgers
Milwaukee will open the NLCS at home on Sunday, Oct. 11, at American Family Field against the Los Angeles Dodgers — a rematch of last year’s NLCS, which Los Angeles swept despite not having home-field advantage. The Brewers scored just four runs in that four-game sweep, a humiliation that has fueled this season’s run.
“This is different this year,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy told Fox Sports, according to Reuters. “We’re going in to beat them. We earned it in the regular season to get home-field advantage. We’re going in to beat them, we don’t care who they have.”
The matchup is baseball’s heavyweight fight. The Brewers finished with the best regular-season record in baseball, and the teams posted the top two records in the majors this season — Milwaukee took the season series 4-3. But the Dodgers are the two-time defending World Series champions, with the best player on the planet (albeit an ailing one) in Shohei Ohtani and a pitching staff that added a reigning Cy Young winner at the deadline in Tarik Skubal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted.
For San Diego, it’s another October obituary. The Padres spent the final two months of the regular season playing like a team of destiny, but it is now the fourth straight season in which the Padres have failed to reach the NLCS — bounced in the Division Series in two of the last three postseasons.
There was a tender postscript to the Brewers’ celebration. Manager Pat Murphy’s one-word message to his son Kai — a 26-year-old outfielder in the Padres’ minor-league system who joined his father on the Petco Park field after the game — was simply: “Sorry.”
What’s Next: Brewers vs. Dodgers NLCS Schedule
The NLCS opens Sunday, Oct. 11, in Milwaukee, with the Brewers holding home-field advantage. Mitchell says this team carries a different energy than last year’s squad that was swept out of the championship series.
“I think we have a different type of confidence and belief in ourselves together as a team,” Mitchell said. “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.”
If the Brewers can win four games — as they did four times in seven regular-season meetings with the Dodgers — they’ll reach the World Series for the first time since 1982 and chase the franchise’s first championship.
Read next: Brewers: Chourio’s Walk-Off Wins NLDS Game 2 vs. Padres and Padres vs. Brewers NLDS Game 3 Recap
FAQ
What was the final score of Brewers vs. Padres NLDS Game 4?
The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at Petco Park, winning the NLDS three games to one, according to Reuters.
Who robbed Manny Machado of the home run?
Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell caught Machado’s 406-foot drive just above the center-field wall in the eighth inning, preventing a game-tying two-run homer. Mitchell also tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth.
Who do the Brewers play in the NLCS?
The Brewers face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS for the second straight season. The series opens Sunday, Oct. 11, at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The Dodgers swept the Brewers in last year’s NLCS.
Did the Brewers break a record in Game 4?
The win snapped Milwaukee’s 12-game postseason road losing streak, which tied the major-league record and dated back to 2018, according to Reuters.
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