San Diego walked out of American Family Field with a 4-3 loss that will sting all the way home. The Padres had the lead in the seventh, carried a one-run edge into the ninth, and had enough traffic on the bases to make this National League Division Series look very different. Instead, Jackson Chourio’s bases-loaded single off Mason Miller ended Game 2 and sent Milwaukee to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five set.
Ty France did not hide from the situation afterward. The Padres know the Brewers arrived as baseball’s top club, and they expected a hard series. Still, France said San Diego could easily have headed home holding a 2-0 advantage of its own. That is not the reality now. The assignment is simpler and harsher: win from here, beginning with Tuesday’s Game 3 at 9:30 p.m. ET on FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One.
For much of Sunday, the Padres had the game in their hands. France opened the scoring with an RBI single against Logan Henderson in the first inning. San Diego added another run in the fifth after taking advantage of two Milwaukee throwing errors on the infield. Michael King protected that cushion with a no-hit effort into the middle innings before the Brewers finally broke through, with Sal Frelick bringing home Christian Yelich.
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy acknowledged that his club had left the door open with four infield defensive mistakes, an unusual showing for his team. He credited the Brewers’ pitchers for making enough quality deliveries to keep the game within reach despite the free bases.
The chances that got away
San Diego entered the seventh with a 2-1 lead and a 66.8 percent win probability. David Hamilton’s error put Fernando Tatis Jr. aboard with one out, and after Dustin Harris flied out, Manny Machado successfully challenged an automated ball-strike call to earn a walk against Abner Uribe. France then lined a run-scoring hit to right, bringing Tatis home for a 3-1 cushion.
That inning could have become the Padres’ escape hatch. Instead, Frelick fielded the ball in right and made a sharp one-hop throw to Hamilton at third, where Machado was cut down to end the inning. Milwaukee answered in the bottom half, trimming the deficit to 3-2.
Padres manager Craig Stammen saw the game as a clash between two athletic, sound defensive clubs, where speed can create errors but also demands big plays. Both sides made plays they would want back, he said, but the margin stayed thin enough that Milwaukee needed a walk-off to finish it.
San Diego mounted another threat in the eighth. Jackson Merrill and pinch-hitter Samad Taylor opened the inning with consecutive singles, putting the Brewers under immediate pressure. Aaron Ashby struck out Xander Bogaerts with a 100 mph sinker, however, and Freddy Fermin followed with an inning-ending double-play grounder.
The Padres finished 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight men. Milwaukee was 2-for-7 in those spots and left seven aboard, a reminder that neither lineup consistently cashed in. But the Brewers found the one hit that mattered most in the ninth after San Diego’s win probability had climbed to 79.6 percent.
Miller had been asked to record six outs while guarding the slim lead, but the final inning turned on the same kind of missed opportunity that had haunted the Padres earlier. With the bases full, Chourio delivered the decisive single.
France said hits are never easy to find against Milwaukee’s pitching staff, one of the game’s best, but postseason games do not offer much room for explanations. San Diego surged into October with baseball’s hottest offense in September. Down two games, the Padres need that version of their lineup again—and they need the runners who reach base to make the final 90 feet count.
Saturday had already offered a strange dose of October frustration, when France’s potential go-ahead homer was robbed by a cable beneath the roof. Sunday brought a different kind of hurt: enough good innings, enough late chances, and one last Brewers swing that left the Padres with no margin remaining.
