The Padres have brought a 2-0 National League Division Series deficit back to San Diego, and the assignment is plain enough: win Tuesday night at Petco Park, then do it again. The odds are not friendly, but this club has spent too much of its season answering doubts to treat them as a final verdict.
Game 3 against Milwaukee is set for Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET, with Nick Pivetta taking the mound for San Diego. The Padres will return to a ballpark where they went 51-30 during the regular season and where they overwhelmed the Cubs in two Wild Card Series wins. After two painful finishes in Milwaukee, that home field may be their most immediate source of momentum.
Hall of Famer David Ortiz declared the series finished after Sunday’s Game 2 loss, but Manny Machado said the Padres have heard that kind of talk all year. In late July, they were three games under .500 and sitting 11th in the National League. They responded with a 41-18 charge, earned the league’s No. 4 seed and put themselves in October.
“We’ve heard those comments all season,” Machado said. “Our backs are against the wall again. We got through it once, and we can do it again. We’re going to do it again. We just have to handle our job and control what we can control.”
Petco Park and the missed chances
Ty France expects the building to have a say. Milwaukee was loud for the opening games, he said, but the Padres are eager to hear their own crowd take over. “We’re looking forward to going home,” France said. “Our fans can be just as loud, if not louder.”
History shows how narrow the path is. In best-of-five series using the current 2-2-1 arrangement, 36 teams have lost the first two road games. Only three recovered to win the series, with the 2017 Yankees against Cleveland the latest to do it. Milwaukee, though, knows that a 2-0 lead is not a clincher: the Brewers took the first two games of a Division Series against the Cubs last year, then dropped Games 3 and 4 at Wrigley Field before finishing the job in Game 5 at home.
For San Diego, the sharper issue is not creating opportunities but finishing them. The Padres went 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position over the first two games and left 20 men on base. They put pressure on elite Brewers pitching, yet did not land the inning that could have changed either game.
Machado said Milwaukee has delivered the decisive hit while the Padres have not. San Diego scored first in both games, but could not widen its advantage or regain control after momentum shifted.
There were openings everywhere. In Game 1, Jacob Misiorowski worked out of a bases-loaded second inning while trailing by two runs. In Game 2, France supplied two two-out RBI hits, but the Padres again left chances unfinished and also ran into outs. Their September offense was baseball’s best at turning modest traffic into crooked numbers. October pitching makes that job tougher, but the Padres need that version of their lineup now.
Pivetta’s chance to give the bullpen a breather
Pivetta’s return from a five-month absence caused by a right elbow flexor strain has given San Diego a needed rotation boost. Since coming back in early September, including his Game 2 appearance against the Cubs in the Wild Card Series, he owns a 1.63 ERA and has become a credible second starter behind Michael King.
The Padres pulled Pivetta after 3 1/3 innings in that Wild Card game because the bullpen was rested and a chance to clinch was on the table. This time, length would be a major gift. San Diego used up its relief options in Game 1, and the shortage carried into Game 2. Miller, the lone fresh reliever, was asked to record six outs and got five.
Pivetta said he sees the moment as an opportunity. A strong outing from him would not merely keep the season alive for another night; it would also put a more rested bullpen in position for a potential Game 4. “I’m excited to be home with the crowd,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
If the Padres force a Game 5 in Milwaukee, the Brewers are likely to turn again to Misiorowski, the presumed National League Cy Young Award winner. San Diego could counter with King, but the more urgent plan may be to use its ace before then. King has substantial postseason relief experience, and after pitching Sunday, he said he expects to be available for Games 3 and 4.
That is the posture a 2-0 deficit demands. There can be no protecting arms for a Game 5 that has not been earned. Get through Tuesday. Find a way through Game 4. Then, if the series returns to Milwaukee, the Padres would have an off-day and a bullpen regarded as the best in baseball ready to support whatever comes next.
