SAN DIEGO, Calif. \u2014 Matt Arnold is a stress eater. On Wednesday night at Petco Park, tortilla chips were the guilty pleasure for the Brewers’ president of baseball operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But by the eighth inning of the game that would send his team through to the National League Championship Series for the second straight season, the architect of an overlooked and undervalued Milwaukee roster was also overachieving in his own way. He had mustered the willpower to switch to a healthier option when Padres third baseman Manny Machado launched a baseball 406 feet into the night sky and sent 47,712 fans into an anticipatory uproar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I was chewing on ice,” Arnold told me. “I was trying to reduce calories.”<\/p>\n
The frozen substitute did not, however, reduce Arnold\u2019s stress levels, which were creeping up jointly with the decibels inside the stadium on a deep drive that could have tied the game and changed the series: “You see that ball, and you see enough of these balls hit where you\u2019re like, \u2018That\u2019s trouble.\u2019”<\/p>\n
That much was clear from Machado\u2019s reaction, one that went immediately from expectant to incredulous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After launching the ball 106.7 mph off the bat, the Padres slugger took a couple small side steps in the batter\u2019s box and admired the moonshot. He clearly thought he got it, up until the point that Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell fought through a sea of Padres fans in the first row to emerge with the baseball. Machado put his hands on his head and removed his helmet in disgusted disbelief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the second time in a four-game, heavyweight, back-and-forth bout, a potential Padres home run stayed in the field of play. In Game 1, it was a deep drive from Ty France that ricocheted off a roof cable at American Family Field. In the deciding Game 4, it was Mitchell bringing Machado\u2019s blast back at Petco Park, thwarting the Padres\u2019 last-ditch effort to save their season in a 3-1 Brewers win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think we have a different type of confidence and belief in ourselves, together as a team,” Mitchell said. “It\u2019s just a quiet, subtle confidence. It\u2019s not showboaty. \u2026 Just, everyone who\u2019s in this clubhouse, front office to the staff, everyone believes.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that snag, and a perfect ninth inning to follow from closer Trevor Megill, the best team in baseball extinguished the hottest team in the sport and removed a burden that had weighed on Milwaukee\u2019s shoulders for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the ninth, closer Trevor Megill made sure there was no need for further outfield heroics. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
Entering Wednesday, the Brewers had lost 12 straight road playoff games. Their all-time postseason road record of 6-24 was the worst mark in MLB. They heard about it over and over.<\/p>\n
But even inside one of the most difficult road environments in the sport, at a field in which the Padres produced a 51-30 record during the regular season and had smothered the Cubs during a two-game wild-card sweep, there was a novel sense of composure and poise. Like they knew they would find a way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not outwardly showing something, it\u2019s just that belief,” Mitchell said. “We\u2019ve been here before.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s just a different feeling, man,” added reliever Aaron Ashby, who fired three scoreless frames to earn the Game 4 win. “I don\u2019t know that I can explain it. \u2026 You can just feel that it\u2019s different, like there\u2019s a calm confidence around the team.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering Wednesday, the Brewers hadn\u2019t won a playoff game away from home since the 2018 NLCS at Dodger Stadium, a game that was started by Walker Buehler. As it turned out, their next road win would also come in a game started by Buehler. The October standout gave the Padres a chance Wednesday night, allowing just one run over three innings before Fernando Tatis Jr. sent the home crowd into a frenzy with a third-inning solo shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All series, though, the Milwaukee offense countered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It never feels like we\u2019re out of it,” Ashby said, “because we aren\u2019t.”<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Brewers didn\u2019t record their first strikeout until their 29th batter of the game, with one out in the seventh inning. They looked like the same relentless lineup that led MLB in batting average and on-base percentage, the one that everyone claimed would not translate to October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After one series, they lead all playoff teams in both categories as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think we’re proving that, no, we still can win in the postseason,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. “Good baseball is good baseball.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jake Bauers struggled in Game 3, but in Game 4, Milwaukee’s first baseman reached base four times and drove in a run. (Photo by Rob Tringali\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
For many of the lefties in the lineup, though, it hadn\u2019t looked so crisp for much of the series. Through the first three games against the Padres, Mitchell, Brice Turang and Jake Bauers were hitting a combined .152 with no extra-base hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So before Game 4, Murphy met with each of them individually.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And on Wednesday, Mitchell started the scoring with an RBI single and later added the deciding run after a leadoff triple in the fifth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Through mistakes, through the ups and downs, he has always said that he believed in me,” Mitchell said. “And he has given me every opportunity to continue to go out there and be myself.”<\/p>\n
Bauers, meanwhile, was coming off a Game 3 in which he struck out in four of his five plate appearances. That made for a tough night of sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a day later, he responded by reaching base all four times up and adding an insurance run after a leadoff single in the sixth. The discussion with Murphy helped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He didn\u2019t say anything that I didn\u2019t already know, but it was good to have the conversation, have someone else tell me too that it was time to refocus a little bit,” Bauers said. “Last night, obviously, I struck out four times, hit a ball out of the stadium 300 feet foul. That\u2019s not who I\u2019ve been this entire season. Just was trying to do way too much. To hear him say \u2018just be you\u2019 was a good reminder.”<\/p>\n
The deep drive from Machado, however, threatened to erase all of their work.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, he\u2019s got some juice,” said Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich. “You don\u2019t feel too good about it when he puts a swing on it like that. You see him stand up at home plate, you\u2019re like, \u2018Man, he got it.\u2019”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yelich had seen that swing before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nine years ago, he was playing left field for Team USA when Machado sent a deep drive to an identical location at the exact same field. That hit was robbed by Adam Jones.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, it felt like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu when Mitchell tracked it down, setting the stage for a celebration in the road clubhouse at Petco Park. The Brewers popped bottles of Budweiser and Prosecco and puffed on Padr\u00f3n cigars until 10:40 p.m., when they suddenly cleared out of the clubhouse and back onto the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They wanted a team picture to commemorate the occasion and a group they feel is more together than past iterations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Brewers celebrating their NLDS victory in San Diego. (Photo by Rob Tringali\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
“I do notice it,” Arnold told me from next to the pitcher\u2019s mound, where players and staff lined up for photos with their families. “I don\u2019t know how to talk about it. You can\u2019t measure it, but you can feel it. I think it\u2019s kind of clich\u00e9 to say it, but it\u2019s a real thing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve been through this a few times,” Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook told me, trying to explain what others could not. “The more you do something, the more you\u2019re under this kind of stress, I think you get a little bit more comfortable in the environment.”<\/p>\n
![\"Major](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791502940_865_MLB.vresize.200.200.medium.0.png\")
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It\u2019s that confidence that has the Brewers believing that they\u2019re better equipped this year to handle their next opponent in an NLCS rematch against a Dodgers team that swept them last October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“As a team, we noticed that maybe [the belief] was lacking a little bit last year, like we were just happy to be there,” Bauers told me. “This year, it\u2019s a little bit more of a choice.”<\/p>\n
“Why wouldn\u2019t you want another chance to go at it?” Mitchell added. “I don\u2019t think that\u2019s any more pressure on us. It\u2019s just, let\u2019s see what we can do.”<\/p>\n
And have some snacks handy for the front office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ll just kill chips,” Arnold said. “Chips and dip.”<\/p>\n
![\"Brewers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2zt7xl1ene03o0tx.jpg\")
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