The Padres kept their October doors open Tuesday night, beating the Brewers 4-3 at Petco Park in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. San Diego answered Milwaukee’s push at nearly every turn, with Jackson Merrill’s range in center, Jake Cronenworth’s go-ahead homer, Xander Bogaerts’ defense and Michael King’s late relief work all helping extend the series.
Key takeaways
- San Diego avoided elimination and forced a Game 4 on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, with FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX One carrying the game.
- Merrill made sliding catches on hard-hit balls by Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick, covering 96 feet on the first and 77 on the second.
- Cronenworth broke a 2-2 tie with a fifth-inning home run after entering the night 1-for-13 this postseason.
- Bogaerts drove in a run, scored another on Milwaukee’s sixth-inning throwing error and finished the game-ending double play.
- King worked the final two innings only two days after throwing 72 pitches across five innings in Game 2.
San Diego found the October answers it had been missing
The Padres arrived at Game 3 needing more production with runners in scoring position after going 3-for-18 in the first two games and leaving 20 men aboard. They manufactured a third-inning lead instead.
Samad Taylor opened the inning with a single against Milwaukee starter Dustin May and promptly stole second. Cronenworth laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Fernando Tatis Jr. brought Taylor home with a groundout. Merrill then singled, stole second and came around when Manny Machado lined a base hit through the left side for a 2-0 advantage.
Milwaukee answered in the fourth when William Contreras launched a hanging sweeper from Nick Pivetta 365 feet into the left-field seats. Contreras, who went 3-for-4, took 32.42 seconds circling the bases as the Petco crowd let him hear it.
May’s night ended abruptly in the bottom half. He issued a four-pitch walk to catcher Ethan Salas, then started Xander Bogaerts with another ball. Brewers manager Pat Murphy removed May after five consecutive pitches missed the zone, handing the ball to left-hander JoJo Romero with a 1-0 count on Bogaerts. Romero retired all three hitters he faced and escaped the inning.
May was direct afterward about the sequence that sent him to the dugout. “It definitely can’t be a four-pitch walk, and then another ball to start Bogaerts,” he said. “Five straight, and then I’m out of there.”
The Brewers drew even in the fifth. Pratt and Frelick singled, Joey Ortiz bunted both runners into scoring position, and Padres manager Craig Stammen called for right-hander Jason Adam with Chourio due up. Chourio lifted a fly ball toward left, and Pratt beat Dustin Harris’ throw home to tie the game at 2-2.
Milwaukee threatened to take control after Jake Bauers walked and Contreras hit a grounder that Bogaerts stopped with a full-extension dive. The shortstop kept the ball on the infield, preventing another run from scoring. Yuki Matsui then came on to face Brice Turang and got the Brewers infielder on a groundout.
Bogaerts called his diving stop the game’s turning point. “If that one gets through, we’re down a run,” he said. “At first I didn’t think I had a chance. It kept carrying, so I dove, and it landed in the glove.”
Turang remained stuck in a difficult stretch, falling to 2-for-his-last-40 after the inning-ending groundout. “I’m looking for a pitch I can handle,” he said. “It just didn’t happen.”
Defense and a veteran finish carry the Padres home
Merrill set the defensive tone from the opening inning. Chourio led off by sending a 103.2 mph liner into the left-center gap, only for Merrill to make a sliding grab after ranging 96 feet. Two innings later, Frelick sent another ball toward the gap and Merrill covered 77 feet for a similar catch.
“My job is to be the best defender I can be for whichever pitcher is on the mound,” Merrill said. “When the ball goes up, I have to do everything I can to catch it.”
Murphy could only react as Merrill robbed Frelick, shouting an exasperated response from the Milwaukee dugout during the broadcast.
Cronenworth supplied the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth. On Romero’s first pitch of the inning, he drove a ball into the right-field seats, turning a 2-2 game into a 3-2 Padres lead. Cronenworth finished with two hits.
“When it happens, you’re excited,” Cronenworth said. “It’s hard to put into words beyond that.”
San Diego added an important insurance run in the sixth, though it came through a messy sequence. Bogaerts singled with two outs and moved to second on a wild pitch. Miguel Andujar, making his first postseason plate appearance, pinch-hit for Harris and worked a full count before chopping a broken-bat grounder toward shortstop Pratt.
Bogaerts leaped over the rolling bat while heading to third. Pratt, avoiding the broken lumber, made a short-hop throw to Bauers at first. The ball got away, and Bogaerts kept charging. He slid headfirst across the plate as the return throw sailed high, making it 4-2.
“I didn’t expect the throw to be off line,” Bogaerts said. “But if it got away, I wanted to try to score. Anticipating it helped me, because otherwise I probably stay at third.”
The Brewers cut the margin to one in the seventh on Christian Yelich’s single against Bradgley Rodriguez. With Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon unavailable, the Padres turned to King for a demanding assignment. King had thrown 72 pitches in five innings during Game 2, but had made it clear he could be used again.
“I know there are pitches left in my arm that I don’t want to hold back,” King said.
King retired Pratt, Frelick and Chourio in order in the eighth after allowing a David Hamilton single. The ninth brought more trouble. He struck out Bauers to start the inning, then Contreras worked a nine-pitch walk and Turang followed with another walk.
That put Yelich at the plate with the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first. King induced a ground ball to Bogaerts, and the veteran shortstop stepped on second before throwing to first for the double play that ended Milwaukee’s rally and San Diego’s elimination game.
Stammen praised a club that has repeatedly had to recover throughout the season. “The resilience, the way we kept fighting and answering back — this group has shown that all year,” he said. “They showed it again tonight. We’ll need it again tomorrow.”
