Jacob Misiorowski brought 104.8 mph into Milwaukee on Saturday, and the Padres still made the Brewers work for every inch of a 3-2 National League Division Series opener. But Jackson Chourio and William Contreras supplied the only three runs Milwaukee needed, each driving a home run in a tense Game 1 at American Family Field.
The result
The Brewers own a 1-0 edge in the best-of-five series after winning a game that turned on bullpen execution and one clean swing in the seventh inning.
San Diego had a deliberate approach against Misiorowski, whose first pitch that reached 104.8 mph became the fastest recorded postseason offering of the Statcast era. The Padres did not chase his heat often: they missed just four times in 28 swings against his fastball, while fouling off 30 pitches and steadily driving up the right-hander’s count.
The damage came when Misiorowski went away from the fastball. All four Padres hits, along with a run-producing fielder’s choice in the second inning, came against either his cutter or slider. After throwing 25 pitches in the first, Misiorowski needed 33 more to navigate an eight-batter second. His afternoon ended after four innings and 88 pitches.
Chourio gave Milwaukee its first answer in the third. The 22-year-old attacked Robbie Ray’s first-pitch slider and drove a two-run shot to left at 113.3 mph. It was his fifth career postseason homer, the most in Brewers history.
The clubs reached the seventh tied at 2-2, when Contreras turned on Adrian Morejon’s full-count sinker and sent it the other way for a solo homer to right. Morejon had not allowed a postseason run across his previous 8 1/3 innings, a streak dating back to the 2024 NLDS against the Dodgers.
Milwaukee’s relief corps handled the narrow lead from there. Abner Uribe left the bases loaded in the seventh, and left-hander DL Hall came on for the high-wire assignment before recording two additional outs in the eighth. Trevor Megill finished a four-out save.
Both managers leaned hard on their pens. Padres relievers covered 5 1/3 innings, while Brewers relievers worked five. Milwaukee entered the postseason with the National League’s best regular-season bullpen ERA, though San Diego’s late-inning pairing of Mason Miller and Morejon arrived with a formidable reputation of its own.
The Brewers were not built around the home run during the regular season, finishing last in the National League and next-to-last across the majors in homers. Manager Pat Murphy had said before the series that home runs depend on getting pitches a hitter can handle and being prepared to capitalize. In Game 1, Milwaukee did exactly that: Chourio’s two-run blast and Contreras’ tiebreaker accounted for every run.
The rotation next
Game 2 is set for Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, 3 p.m. CT and 1 p.m. PT, with FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One carrying the game. Milwaukee will hand the ball to Logan Henderson for his first postseason start. San Diego counters with ace Michael King.
King comes in after a commanding Wild Card Series opener against the Cubs, when he yielded one hit over seven scoreless innings. With the Padres trailing in the series, his outing carries immediate weight after both bullpens absorbed substantial work Saturday.
The Game 1 numbers underline the task ahead for San Diego. In best-of-five postseason series, teams winning the opener have taken the series 116 times in 160 chances, a 73% rate. Home clubs that win Game 1 under the current Division Series setup have advanced 42 times in 56 series, or 75%.
The pressure grows sharply if Milwaukee wins again. Teams with a 2-0 lead in any best-of-five postseason matchup have won 83 of 93 series, an 88.9% success rate. In the current 2-2-1 Division Series format, teams that captured the first two games at home moved on 33 times in 36 tries.
Milwaukee knows the value of that early cushion. The Brewers beat the Cubs in Game 1 of the 2025 NLDS and eventually won that series in five games. The Padres, meanwhile, dropped the first game of their 2024 NLDS against Los Angeles before losing the series in five.
There is also a possible later-series thread in Misiorowski’s difficult afternoon. If the matchup reaches Game 5, he would likely return for Milwaukee. The Padres have now shown they can foul off the fastball, stay competitive in extended at-bats and look for his cutter and slider. For one afternoon, though, Milwaukee’s two swings into the seats made that future question wait.
