Cronenworth’s Homer, King’s Six-Out Save: Padres Stun Brewers 4-3 to Force NLDS Game 4

SAN DIEGO — The season nearly ended on a line drive. Instead, it continued on one swing. Jake Cronenworth jumped a first-pitch sweeper from JoJo Romero leading off the bottom of the fifth inning Tuesday night and drove it 368 feet to right field, the tie-breaking homer in a 4-3 Game 3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Petco Park. Two days after throwing 72 pitches as the Game 2 starter, Michael King came out of the bullpen for a six-out save with star closer Mason Miller on the paternity list. The Padres trail the best-of-five National League Division Series 2-1 and forced a Game 4 on Wednesday night.

It was a win the Padres had little business claiming. The Brewers nearly doubled San Diego’s hit total, nearly tripled their runners on base, and forced the Padres to burn their Game 2 starter in relief, USA Today reported. But the Padres kept answering, and when the night ended, Milwaukee owned a dubious piece of history: its 12th consecutive postseason road loss, tying the longest such streak in baseball history.

NLDS Game 3 · Padres 4, Brewers 3The at-bat

Cronenworth’s moment arrived with the game knotted at 2-2. He led off the bottom of the fifth, took one look at Romero’s first-pitch sweeper, and ended the debate — 368 feet to right, per USA Today, and a 3-2 lead that silenced nothing, because Petco Park was roaring.

The path to 2-2 was its own small epic. San Diego struck first in the third against Milwaukee starter Dustin May: Samad Taylor’s leadoff single, a steal of second, a Cronenworth sacrifice to third, and a Fernando Tatis Jr. tapper that scored the run. Jackson Merrill singled and stole second before Manny Machado’s run-scoring single made it 2-0. May lasted three-plus innings, charged with two runs on three hits and two walks with three strikeouts, Reuters reported.

Milwaukee answered through William Contreras, who smacked a leadoff homer to left off Nick Pivetta in the fourth — his second homer of the series. The Brewers started the fifth with back-to-back singles by Cooper Pratt and Sal Frelick, Joey Ortiz laid down a bunt to move the runners up, and after Jason Adam replaced Pivetta, Jackson Chourio’s fly ball to shallow left was deep enough for Pratt to beat Dustin Harris’ throw and knot the score at 2. Pivetta gave up two runs and five hits over 4 1/3 innings, striking out four without a walk.

Sixth inningThe broken bat

The decisive run came on the kind of play that only happens in October. With two outs in the sixth, Xander Bogaerts singled off Antonio Senzatela, and DL Hall entered and uncorked a wild pitch to move him to second. Pinch-hitter Miguel Andujar then hit a broken-bat bouncer to shortstop that slipped between the legs of a leaping Cooper Pratt. Pratt’s throw to first bounced in front of Jake Bauers and caromed away a few feet as Bogaerts came around to score, and the Padres had a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.

Left-hander Yuki Matsui was credited with the win after retiring three batters over the fifth and sixth innings, bridging the chaos between Pivetta’s exit and the late-inning high wire.

The six-out saveKing’s night

King’s availability was the story inside the story. With Miller on the paternity list before the game, manager Craig Stammen needed length from somewhere, and his Game 2 starter raised his hand. “I made myself available on Sunday, confirmed it with (manager Craig) Stammen today,” King said afterward, via Reuters. “I knew that there was a chance it was going to be late in the game because of Mason’s wife, but six outs to end the game is six outs to end the game. I wasn’t as crisp as I’d like to be, but I’m very happy for a Game 4.”

Crisp or not, it worked: one hit, two walks, six outs, save. The ninth was pure theater — Contreras and Brice Turang walked against King with one out before Christian Yelich hit a bullet that short-hopped into Bogaerts’ glove at shortstop. Bogaerts touched second and threw to first for the game-ending double play, and Petco Park exhaled.

“We didn’t get the big hit at the big time, but do you fault Yelly for hitting one 107 there and Bogaerts making a great play? They got a great team, and they played great defense tonight. They really did,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Twelve straightThe record

Contreras went 3-for-4 with a walk and a homer, and Yelich’s seventh-inning RBI single off Bradgley Rodriguez — his first RBI since Game 7 of the 2018 NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers — snapped a drought that had stretched across five series, 19 games, 85 plate appearances and 74 at-bats, per USA Today. Garrett Mitchell struck out to end the inning, leaving the Brewers down 4-3.

It was that kind of night for Milwaukee: runners on base all evening, Jackson Merrill robbing at least two doubles in center, and Yelich’s game-ending rocket smoked at 107.1 mph with an expected batting average of .630, per USA Today. “We hit the ball hard,” second baseman Brice Turang said. “We had really good at-bats. We were drawing walks. Sometimes, guys are just right there when you hit them, and sometimes they make really nice plays.”

The loss was Milwaukee’s 12th consecutive postseason road defeat, matching the longest streak in playoff history — set by the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins from 1925 to 1987. The streak began in Game 3 of the 2018 NLCS against the Dodgers, and Yelich is the only Brewer who has been around for all of it. The absurdity of it: these Brewers won 48 road games this season in a 103-win campaign, the best record in baseball.

“I really enjoy them. I enjoy the road losses. They feel good. Does it wear on me?” Murphy said, via USA Today. “That’s a great point to bring up. It’s tough to win on the road in playoff situations obviously.”

What’s nextGame 4 Wednesday

Game 4 is Wednesday night at Petco Park — 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. PT) on FS1 — with both starters still to be announced, per the NBC Sports postseason tracker. If the Brewers win, they advance to the NLCS; if the Padres win again, the series returns to Milwaukee for a decisive Game 5 on Friday.

“We used a lot of energy today, and we’ve got to bring that same energy tomorrow also,” Stammen said. “The resilience we showed today, the stick-to-itativeness, the keep bouncing back, all the adjectives you can use for that, this team showed it all year, and they showed it especially again tonight. We’re going to have to do it again tomorrow.”

For more on the series and the full postseason picture, see the NLDS Game 4 preview, Tuesday’s postseason recap, and the Dodgers-Braves Game 3 story.