Mason Miller Hits the Paternity List as the Padres Fight for Their Season in NLDS Game 3

SAN DIEGO — About 45 minutes before first pitch Tuesday night, with the San Diego Padres staring down elimination and their season hanging by a thread, the news hit the Petco Park press box like a line drive: Mason Miller, the All-Star closer with the 104-mph fastball, was going on the Postseason Paternity List. He would not be available for Game 3 against the Milwaukee Brewers. In a win-or-go-home game, the Padres would have to survive the highest-leverage innings of their season without the most terrifying arm in their bullpen.

The transaction itself is straightforward, and Major League Baseball's commissioner office approved it — postseason paternity moves require league sign-off precisely to avoid roster shenanigans. Miller must remain away from the club for at least one day and no more than three, and when he returns he takes the roster spot of the man replacing him: left-hander Wandy Peralta, who had been left off San Diego's initial NLDS roster despite posting a 3.61 ERA in the regular season. It is the second time this series the Padres have used the list — starter Walker Buehler missed the first two games in Milwaukee and returned Monday, with his stand-in, Randy Vásquez, never throwing a pitch.

The cruel part is the timing, because Miller's last act in this series is still fresh in everyone's mind. On Sunday in Milwaukee, he was one strike away from completing a six-out save that would have sent the series back to San Diego tied. Instead, everything unraveled: three walks in the ninth inning, the bases loaded, and then Jackson Chourio — 22 years old, fearless — ripping a 101-mph fastball into center field for a two-run walk-off single and a 4-3 Brewers win. It was Miller's 40th pitch of the night, a season high. You could make the case San Diego would have wanted to stay away from him on Tuesday anyway. But there is a universe of difference between resting your closer and not having him at all, and an elimination game is the one place that difference matters most.

This is, after all, one of the most overpowering relievers the game has ever seen. Miller went 5-2 with a 1.67 ERA during the regular season, converting 38 of 41 save chances with 129 strikeouts in just 70 innings and a 0.90 WHIP. Last October, he announced himself to the postseason by striking out the first eight batters he faced — the longest such streak to begin a playoff career — while unleashing a 104.5-mph fastball, the fastest tracked pitch in postseason history. Chourio said after Game 2 that the walk-off ranked "in the top three of the special moments" of his career. You don't get a quote like that unless you beat someone who matters.

So who covers the ninth — and the eighth, and every high-leverage out before them — on Tuesday night? The likely answer is Adrian Morejon, the setup man who has been one of the most dependable relievers in the majors this year. Morejon was on the wrong end of Game 1, surrendering William Contreras' go-ahead solo homer in the seventh, but he remains San Diego's best late-inning option with Miller out. Beyond him, it's a patchwork: Peralta's left arm, matchups, and whatever Mike Shildt can piece together if this game is close late. And it has every reason to be close late — this series has been decided by two runs or fewer in every game.

As this story published, Game 3 was still being written at Petco Park, tied 2-2 in the middle innings. The Padres scored first for the third straight game in this series — Samad Taylor, in the lineup for the scratched Gavin Sheets (stiff neck), singled in the third, stole second, moved to third on Jake Cronenworth's bunt and came home on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s infield tapper — before Contreras answered with a solo homer in the fourth, his second of the series. Nick Pivetta started for San Diego against Dustin May for Milwaukee, and both bullpens were already stirring. Nobody in the building needed a reminder of what happened the last time these two bullpens met in the ninth.

The stakes on the other side are just as heavy. The Brewers — 103 wins, home-field advantage throughout the playoffs — are trying to snap an 11-game postseason road losing streak, a skid stretching back to their 2018 NLCS Game 3 win over the Dodgers and the second-longest in baseball history. A win Tuesday night sends Milwaukee to the National League Championship Series for the second consecutive year. A loss sends everyone back for Game 4 on Wednesday at Petco Park, and if a Game 5 is needed, it goes Friday afternoon in Milwaukee. The Brewers have won the first two games of this series from behind; they have shown no interest in making anything easy.

There is no way around what this night asks of the Padres. They were already down 2-0 to the best team in the National League. They were already without Sheets' bat. And now the reliever who was supposed to be their October hammer is at home awaiting the birth of his first child — Miller's wife, Jordan, went into labor Tuesday afternoon — while 40,000 people at Petco Park try to will a season into Wednesday. If San Diego survives the night, Miller comes back and the math changes again. But survival comes first, and survival now runs through a bullpen missing its closer. Across the National League bracket, the Dodgers took a 2-1 series lead over the Braves behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto's gem — October is condensing fast. For the full story of how this series got here, read Chourio's Game 2 walk-off, and find all our MLB coverage on the sports desk.