Brewers 3, Padres 1: Mitchell's Night Sent Milwaukee Back to the NLCS

A 406-foot drive. Mitchell still had the wall.

October 7, 2026 - San Diego - Manny Machado nearly tied National League Division Series Game 4 in the eighth. The drive went 406 feet. Garrett Mitchell tracked it to the short wall in right-center and reached just above the padding, the Associated Press recap on ESPN said, and kept it in the yard. Brice Turang then made an acrobatic catch on Ty France's foul popup. The inning died at 3-1.

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 and won the series 3-1. They are in a second straight NLCS, a rematch with the Dodgers, who had already finished Atlanta. Mitchell had already singled home the first run and tripled into the go-ahead inning. The catch was the last thing San Diego needed him not to do.

Clear. 81 degrees. Wind 6 mph, in from left. First pitch 10:08 p.m. ET. Attendance 47,712. The game lasted 3 hours. Milwaukee snapped a 12-game postseason road losing streak that dated to Game 3 of the 2018 NLCS, when the Brewers beat Walker Buehler at Dodger Stadium. Buehler started this one too.

Frelick stole second. Tatis answered 429 feet.

Sal Frelick reached on an infield single in the third, stole second, and scored on Mitchell's grounder through center. 1-0. Robert Gasser, a former Padres draft pick traded in the Josh Hader deal in 2022, the MLB recap said, had already escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first after Joey Ortiz chose not to risk a throw on a double-play grounder.

Fernando Tatis Jr. then hit a 429-foot homer to center in the third. ESPN called it the longest postseason homer at Petco Park by a San Diego player. It ended a 1-for-19 skid since the playoff opener. 1-1. Gasser still left with a 2-1 lead after four innings: three hits, one earned, one walk, three strikeouts, the homer. He told MLB.com he probably heard the crowd at its peak and still executed.

Buehler threw three innings: three hits, one earned, two walks, no strikeouts. Craig Stammen pulled him after William Contreras's leadoff single in the fourth and handed the ball to Robbie Ray, the Game 1 starter. Ray threw one inning, took the loss, and watched Mitchell's fifth-inning triple sit just over first and into the right-field corner.

Chourio's 17th. Bauers to third. Ashby for three zeros.

Jackson Chourio singled Mitchell through a drawn-in infield. 2-1. ESPN said Chourio, 22, passed Ryan Braun for the Brewers' career postseason RBI lead. He has 17 in 16 playoff games, six in this series. Jake Bauers singled to start the sixth, went to third on Cooper Pratt's ground-rule double, and scored on Frelick's sacrifice fly. 3-1.

Aaron Ashby threw three hitless innings after Gasser: two walks, three strikeouts, the win. Abner Uribe threw the eighth and lived through Machado's drive. Trevor Megill struck out two in a clean ninth for his second save of the series. Four Brewers pitchers combined on a three-hitter. San Diego had three hits. Milwaukee had 10 and still needed every one of them.

Mason Miller missed Game 3 for the birth of his first child. He allowed three baserunners in the seventh on Wednesday and no runs. The Padres had won 19 of 22 before losing three of four to Milwaukee, the AP recap said, after sitting below .500 and in 11th in the NL in late July. They swept the Cubs in the Wild Card Series. They could not get a fourth NLCS.

Jacob Misiorowski was in the bullpen to start the night, the MLB recap said, a sign Milwaukee wanted this over in four so the Cy Young front-runner could throw Game 1 of the NLCS. That is now the plan. Sunday, American Family Field.

Murphy already sees the All-Stars. Yelich sees the group.

Pat Murphy told MLB.com the Dodgers have an All-Star at every position. He also said teams win, and this group has to play as a team. Christian Yelich, the only active Brewer left from 2018, told that wrap he was proud of the guys. The pitching on both sides made every game tight. You win on the margins. For the most part, they did.

The four games were decided by a combined five runs, ESPN said. Milwaukee won Game 1 3-2, Game 2 4-3, lost Game 3 4-3, and closed it 3-1. The 103-win club is four wins from a second World Series berth in franchise history. The Dodgers swept them in last year's NLCS on the way to a second straight title. This is the chance to write a different October.

Mitchell went 2-for-4 with a triple, a run, and an RBI. Bauers went 1-for-1 with three walks. Tatis went 1-for-3 with the homer and a walk. Machado's 406-foot fly became an out. That is how a road drought ends: 10 hits, three runs, and a center fielder who would not let the wall decide it.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Milwaukee at 8 team fantasy points on a 3-1. Ashby had 12 pitching FP. Megill had 10. Uribe had 8. Gasser had 7. Tatis had 7 hitting FP in a loss. Mitchell had 6. San Diego sat at -2. Those numbers are the clincher: a win, three runs, one against, three hitless relief innings, and a homer that was not enough.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*