Thousands of Padres fans belted out the chant, again and again, even as the outlook darkened late Wednesday night.
“Let’s go Padres! … Let’s go Padres!’”
Manny Machado, the team’s home run leader, responded with an eighth-inning launch that by MLB’s data would’ve gone for a homer in 19 big-league ballparks.
Petco Park, alas, wasn’t one of them.
Machado’s potential game-tying shot stalled above right-center field, as often happens in the East Village, and Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell caught it with a controlled leap near the 7-foot wall.
One final time, in the ninth, Padres fans chanted a special chant they have for Gavin Sheets… only to see a vicious curveball strike him out.
Goodbye, 2026 season.
Hello to the new cry in Padres Land:
“Let’s go Brewers!…Let’s Go Brewers!”
Padres fans want to see the team that ended their season do the same to the Los Angeles Dodgers by winning the National League Championship Series that begins Sunday in Milwaukee.
That’s how many Padres fans reacted Wednesday night, filing out of Petco Park following the 3-1 defeat that sent the small-market Brewers onward.
Of course, it’ll take the baseball gods lending a hand.
The Dodgers, baseball’s Death Star, have won the past two World Series and since have added ace Tarik Skubal to a formidable pitching rotation.
And the champs, who use the regular season as a tuneup, are feeling their potential..
“There is no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers,” manager Dave Roberts hollered Wednesday night in Atlanta, amid his club’s champagne party after the 4-1 victory over the Braves clinched the NLCS berth.
“It’s the best organization in sports from top to bottom,” Roberts cried. “We’re smarter. We’re better. And we’re tougher.”
San Diego, CA – October 6: Cooper Pratt #12 of the Milwaukee Brewers scores past Ethan Salas #8 in the fifth inning during game three of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on October 6, 2026 in San Diego, CA. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Brewers know the difficulty of winning a best-of-7 series against the Dodgers, having lost a Game 7 to them in the 2018 NLCS and dropping all four games in last year’s NLCS.
It’s best to face the deep Dodgers in a short series. The past two times they lost a postseason series, it happened in the best-of-5 NLDS, against the 2023 Diamondbacks and the 2022 Padres.
By now, compared to a few years ago, the youthful Brewers are October veterans, not just a team that led MLB in regular-season victories with 103. And they say that matters.
“Everyone’s another year older who’s been here and done the postseason for a couple years now,” 28-year-old reliever Aaron Ashby, a nephew of former Padres pitcher Andy Ashby, said on the night before his team’s win Wednesday snapped the club’s 12-game losing streak in postseason games on the road..
“This team just feels so resilient,” said Ashby. “We’re down in games, and it never feels like we’re out of it, because we aren’t. Just a credit to our offense, and they can get us back in any game, and (we) just feel really, really comfortable with the group.”
Growing up fast, Brewers pitchers Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson this year became big-league stars at age 24, while further rewarding Brewers scouts who drafted them out of the community college ranks.
The flamethrower Misiorowski led the majors in both ERA (1.80) and strikeouts (252), while profiting from a leg-strengthening workouts that increased his stamina.
In the NLDS opener, The Miz dealt Padres leadoff man Fernando Tatis Jr. a hot blast of October heat – two pitches at 105 mph – that may have been unprecedented to begin a postseason game.
While the 6-foot-7 Misiorowski has cast a long shadow, the savvy Henderson resembled an ace in his own right by logging a 2.47 ERA in 18 games. The changeup artist’s .844 rate of walks and hits allowed per inning pitched (WHIP) approximated the Miz’s .802 WHIP that led MLB.
Ashby and former Padres minor leaguer Trevor Megill, the team’s closer, joined several other high achievers in lifting Milwaukee’s bullpen atop several MLB categories.
Offensively, the Brew Crew runs deep.
The most exciting hitters are Venezuelan right-handers Jackson Chourio, 22, and catcher William Contreras, 28.
Chourio’s quick, powerful swing allows him to wait longer on pitches. It’s apt that Chourio wears the same No. 11 worn by former Brewers slugger Gary Sheffield, who could rope anyone’s fastball.
Citing Contreras’ defense and offense, Padres manager Craig Stammen said the catcher and No. 3 hitter was MVP of the NLDS.
The Dodgers are rightly favored to become the first franchise to win three straight World Series titles since the Yankees of 1998-2000. No National League club has pulled off the three-peat.
Skubal opened his 2026 season in San Diego. When Tatis was asked how he’d prepare for that matchup, he answered with one word.
“Pray,” he said.
Because this is how the baseball universe works, the Dodgers traded for Skubal this summer, sending three minor leaguers to Detroit.
The Tigers traded Skubal because they knew they wouldn’t be able to sign him as free agent this offseason, when he’s expected to command a gargantuan sum from the Dodgers.
With L.A. the 29-year-old lefty, recovered fully from an in-season elbow procedure, has pitched close to the form that won him two Cy Young awards. Yet the Dodgers have three other well-rested, grooved starters — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow — who on their best days can match or exceed Skubal.
Little wonder that Roberts, having piloted three world champions, was feeling froggy Wednesday night.
But in San Diego, the cry will still go up:
Let’s go Brewers!
And it may extend beyond Padres fandom.
“Congratulations, guys,” Stammen told Brewers pitchers Ashy and Robert Gasser after the 3-1 defeat, while exiting his postgame news conference. “I hope you go all the way.”