The situation was dire at the start and desperate before too long.
And it was devastating at the end, as the Padres were left to watch the Brewers congratulate each other on the field.
“These days are never easy,” Joe Musgrove said. “You spend nine months with these guys every day. And then at the drop of a hat, it’s over.”
A 3-1 loss in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night ended the Padres’ season, as their offense sputtered to the finish and a parade of pitchers were unable to deny the relentless Brewers.
“We saw what a series looks like when two hot teams go up against each other that are pretty evenly matched,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “They were able to get on the right end of the scoreboard a few more games than we were.”
It was just the second postseason series ever, along with the 1915 World Series, to go at least three games in which neither team led by more than two runs.
As the Padres tried to chase victory on Wednesday, closer Mason Miller entered in the seventh inning in an attempt to keep a deficit where it was.
It was not a save situation. It was an attempt to save the season from slipping away.
Miller left the bases loaded in the seventh, and Musgrove got through the final two innings.
But the Padres’ final hit was a game-tying home run by Fernando Tatis Jr. leading off the third inning. They became the first National League team to ever finish a postseason hitless in their final 21 at-bats.
“You’re facing the best team in baseball,” Manny Machado said. “One of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball, if not the best. You know, we had opportunities there and we just didn’t come up with the clutch hit. They did, and that’s just how the series turned around.”
The Padres’ last gasp came in the eighth inning when Tatis led off with a walk before Jackson Merrill, Machado and Ty France all made outs.
Machado at least gave his out a ride, sending a fly ball 406 feet to right-center field that center fielder Garrett Mitchell caught above the short wall in front of the party deck. That sent Machado walking back to the dugout with both hands on his head. After walking down the dugout steps, he repeatedly slammed his helmet against the bat rack.
“Just unfortunate, man,” Machado said. “Nice play. Should have hit it harder.”
Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell reaches above the outfield wall to catch a ball hit by the Padres’ Manny Machado during the eighth inning in Game 4 of their National League Division Series on Wednesday night in San Diego. The Brewers held on for a 3-1 win to advance to the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
In the four games in the series, the Padres hit .181 and scored 10 runs. It was the third consecutive year that the bats went limp in the postseason.
“Honestly, I think our offense played well in this series,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We didn’t have a great game today. But you look at the first three games, we had tons of scoring opportunities and we cashed through on a few but not always.”
The Brewers, who led the major leagues with 103 victories and ranked second in runs scored during the regular season, outscored the Padres by just three runs. But that was plenty for them to move onto the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers, who beat the Braves in the other NLDS.
The Brewers scored first Wednesday for the first time in the series, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the third.
Tatis answered immediately when he sent a 1-2 fastball Brewers starting pitcher Robert Gasser left up and over the middle a projected 429 feet to center field.
But the Brewers retook the lead for good in the fifth inning and added a run in the sixth.
Wednesday ended a year that included 91 victories in the regular season and a two-game sweep of the Cubs in the NL Wild Card Series, and it would leave the long winter for the Padres to be tortured by how close this series was to being theirs.
“It was two really good teams just throwing punch for punch,” France said. “It was a heavyweight battle, and they came out on top. … Both teams played their best baseball. Somebody had to win, and somebody had to lose.”
The Padres had forced Wednesday’s game by winning 4-3 on Tuesday night in Game 3. That was the third game in the series decided by one run, and there were reasons to believe the Padres could have won the first two.
They stranded 12 runners in a 3-2 loss in Game 1, which they led 2-0 before the Brewers came back with a two-run homer by Jackson Chourio in the third inning and a solo homer by William Contreras in the seventh. Chourio’s bases-loaded single off Miller with two outs in the ninth inning decided the Brewers’ 4-3 victory in Game 2.
The Padres went 4-for-23 with runners in scoring position over the four games.
“Their pitching (was) good all series,” Stammen said. “They kind of threw all their high-leverage arms at us, and we weren’t able to get anything done.”
Walker Buehler throws during the first inning of Wednesday’s playoff game at Petco Park. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Padres starting pitcher Walker Buehler began Wednesday’s game juiced.
His first pitch was a 97.4 mph sinker, faster than any he had thrown all season. In a six-pitch inning, he topped 97 mph three times, once more than he did during the regular season.
Machado got the crowd as frenzied as it had been at any point in the four playoff games at Petco Park this postseason when he followed Merrill’s one-out single by beating out a perfect bunt to third base in the first inning.
But France’s grounder to the left side resulted in Merrill being forced at third, though it should have been a double play if not for the fact third baseman Joey Ortiz held the ball instead of throwing across the diamond.
And after Austin Hays drew a walk to load the bases, Xander Bogaerts popped out.
It was reminiscent of Game 1, when the Padres left the bases loaded twice, including after already scoring twice in the second inning and with a chance to get presumptive NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski out of the game.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have bunted,” Machado said. “Maybe I should have swung and maybe hit a homer there. But just trying to get something going, and we just couldn’t get that big hit and they did.”
Buehler ran his postseason scoreless streak to 15 innings before the Brewers scored in the third when Sal Frelick led off the inning with a single, stole second base and scored easily on Mitchell’s single.
And, as Misiorowski had, Gasser used the reprieve well.
Fernando Tatis Jr. and teammates celebrate after his home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the third inning in Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Padres went down in order in the second before Tatis, who had one hit in his previous 19 at-bats, hit the longest home run by a Padres player in a postseason game at Petco Park.
Gasser got back to being stingy after Tatis’ blast, however, retiring six batters of the final seven batters he faced to get through the fourth inning. The only interruption to that string was when shortstop Cooper Pratt booted a routine grounder hit by Luis Campusano with two outs in the fourth inning.
The Brewers, who were on base again and again throughout the series even if they did not score much more than the Padres, continued to pepper the basepaths. They had at least one runner on base in 21 of the final 24 innings of the series.
They chased Buehler with a single to begin the fourth inning before Robbie Ray stranded two to end the inning.
Then a groundball by Mitchell sailed just over the outermost portion of first base and rolled to the corner in right field as he ran all the way to third base to start the fifth inning.
That ended Ray’s night, and Bradgley Rodriguez entered his fourth game of the series.
He got a groundout from Ortiz, which froze Mitchell, before Chourio lined a single up the middle to put the Brewers back on top.
A single by Christian Yelich and a fly ball out from Contreras was all that was asked of Rodriguez. Yuki Matsui got the final out of the inning.
After left-hander Aaron Ashby worked the first of his three scoreless innings, the Brewers upped their lead to 3-1 in the sixth against Jason Adam on a leadoff single by Jake Bauers, a double by Pratt that got over the left field wall on a hop and Frelick’s sacrifice fly.
The Padres’ last three times on base were via walks — with one out in the sixth, two outs in the seventh and Tatis’ walk in the eighth. They went down in order against Brewers closer Trevor Megill in the ninth.
“We had opportunities,” France said. “We didn’t have our best offensive performance, but we worked some walks, had some guys on. But we didn’t capitalize.”