King slams the door and the Padres stay alive: 4-3 over the Brewers in Game 3
Jake Cronenworth's tiebreaking homer and two scoreless relief innings from Michael King, two days after his start, kept San Diego's season going Tuesday night at Petco Park. The Brewers still lead the NLDS 2-1. Walker Buehler gets Game 4 tonight.
SAN DIEGO: The Padres refused to go quietly. Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking homer in the fifth inning and Michael King, the Game 2 starter, came back on two days of rest to pitch the final two innings as San Diego beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday night at Petco Park. Milwaukee still leads the best-of-five series 2-1.
San Diego built a 2-0 lead in the third inning with runs driven in by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. Brewers catcher William Contreras answered with a solo homer in the fourth, and Jackson Chourio's sacrifice fly tied the game 2-2 in the fifth. Cronenworth restored the lead immediately after, sending a Jojo Romero pitch 368 feet into the right-field seats for a 3-2 edge.
The insurance run came in the sixth, when Xander Bogaerts scored on an error by Milwaukee shortstop Cooper Pratt to make it 4-2. Christian Yelich's RBI single in the seventh cut it to 4-3, but that was the closest Milwaukee got. It was the third straight one-run game in the series.
"They've been great games," Cronenworth said. "I think the biggest thing is runs are coming at a premium, especially the way our bullpen is pitching and their bullpen is pitching. You score early, but then you've got to kind of add some insurance."
The bullpen nobody mapped out
San Diego improvised the finish. Closer Mason Miller was placed on the Postseason Paternity List about 45 minutes before first pitch, with his wife Jordan in labor, and left-hander Wandy Peralta was added to the active roster in his place. Setup man Adrian Morejon was also unavailable with a shoulder issue. So the Padres turned to King, who came into the game in the top of the eighth to protect a 4-3 lead.
King retired four of his first five batters. Contreras and Brice Turang drew one-out walks in the ninth, but Yelich ripped a line drive up the middle and Bogaerts went to his knees to field it on a short hop, touched second and threw to first for a game-ending double play. The save was King's first since 2023, his first in the postseason and his first for the Padres.
"It feels like we played three straight games against the Brewers like that," manager Craig Stammen said. "We finally were able to come out on the right end of things in this one."
What comes next
The loss was Milwaukee's twelfth consecutive postseason road defeat, a streak stretching back to the 2018 NL Championship Series. "This team has one person playing from 2018. So that really has no effect on this group," Yelich said. The Brewers left eleven runners on base.
The Padres turn to right-hander Walker Buehler in Game 4 on Wednesday night at Petco Park. Buehler spent the first two games of the series on the paternity list; he made eighteen postseason starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers between 2018 and 2024, recorded the save in the decisive Game 5 of the 2024 World Series against the Yankees, and is 4-4 with a 3.04 ERA in the playoffs. Milwaukee has not named a Game 4 starter. A Game 5, if necessary, would be Friday night in Milwaukee.
"We had our backs against the wall, we had nothing to lose but going out there and playing our baseball," Machado said.
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