Brewers Beat Padres in Game 4, Set Up NLCS Rematch With Dodgers

The Milwaukee Brewers are headed back to the National League Championship Series. Garrett Mitchell tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning, then tracked down Manny Machado’s drive at the wall in the eighth, as Milwaukee beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 on Wednesday night to win their best-of-five Division Series in four games, The Associated Press reported. According to MLB.com, the Brewers’ bullpen did not allow a hit after the fourth inning.

The win sets up an NLCS rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who eliminated the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. The Dodgers swept Milwaukee in last year’s NLCS on the way to their second straight World Series title, the AP noted. Game 1 is Sunday in Milwaukee, with ace Jacob Misiorowski almost certainly lined up to start, and the 103-win Brewers are four wins from only the second World Series berth in franchise history.

Milwaukee scored first in the third inning when Sal Frelick beat out an infield single, stole second and came home on a single by Mitchell, according to the AP. Fernando Tatis Jr. answered in the bottom of the inning with a 429-foot homer to center field, ending a 1-for-19 skid dating to San Diego’s playoff opener. The AP said it was the longest postseason home run ever hit at Petco Park by a Padres player.

Padres starter Walker Buehler allowed one run on three hits, but manager Craig Stammen turned to Game 1 starter Robbie Ray after William Contreras led off the fourth with a single. Mitchell led off the fifth with a liner over first base into the right-field corner and scored on Jackson Chourio’s single through a drawn-in infield. That hit made the 22-year-old Chourio the Brewers’ career leader in postseason RBIs, passing Ryan Braun, with 17 in 16 playoff games, six of them in this series. Jake Bauers later scored on a Frelick sacrifice fly in the sixth.

From there, the bullpen took over. After starter Robert Gasser, a former Padres draft pick, threw four innings, left-hander Aaron Ashby worked three scoreless frames, walking two and striking out three, MLB.com reported. “I almost left him in,” manager Pat Murphy told MLB.com. “He wanted to. But sometimes you have a feel, and three innings were what was called for tonight.”

The biggest scare came in the eighth. Abner Uribe walked Tatis and struck out Jackson Merrill before Machado drove a 99.6 mph sinker 406 feet to right-center, where Mitchell reached just above the short wall to make the catch, the AP reported. “To me, that might’ve been the inning of the night,” Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook told MLB.com. Closer Trevor Megill finished it in the ninth by striking out pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets.

The victory snapped Milwaukee’s 12-game postseason road losing streak, which dated to the 2018 NLCS. All four games were decided by two runs or fewer, and MLB.com reported that the Brewers’ relievers allowed three runs, one earned, in the series, compared with seven, six earned, for San Diego’s bullpen. The Padres were below .500 and 11th in the NL in late July before surging into the top wild-card spot and sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card Series, the AP noted. For more postseason coverage, visit our Sports page.

Verification: The score, series result, scoring plays, Tatis’ home run, Chourio’s franchise record, the NLCS schedule and the Padres’ season context come from The Associated Press (via TSN, Oct. 8). Bullpen details, pitch velocity and the Murphy and Hook quotes come from MLB.com (Cole Bradley, Oct. 8).