Padres 4, Brewers 3: King Closed Game 3 on One Day of Rest

Six outs. A 107 mph liner. Bogaerts ended it.

October 6, 2026 - San Diego - Michael King had already thrown five innings in Game 2 on Sunday. He still walked in from the bullpen in the eighth of an elimination game. William Contreras and Brice Turang walked in the ninth. Christian Yelich lined 107 mph up the middle, the MLB recap said. Xander Bogaerts went to a knee, touched second, and threw to first. Double play. The San Diego Padres beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in National League Division Series Game 3. Milwaukee still leads the series 2-1. San Diego still has a Wednesday.

King stood on the mound and smiled, that wrap said. Forty pitches. Two innings. One hit. Two walks. One strikeout. Save number 1. The Associated Press recap on ESPN said it was his first save since 2023, his first in the postseason, and his first as a Padre. Mason Miller was on the paternity list. Adrian Morejon had shoulder stickiness, manager Craig Stammen's word. King told MLB.com he has bullets in his arm that he does not want to save.

Clear. 82 degrees. Wind 9 mph in from left. First pitch 6:39 p.m. PT. Attendance 47,708. The game lasted 3 hours, 22 minutes. All three games in this series have been one run. The MLB recap said that had not happened to open a postseason series since the 2021 NLCS between the Dodgers and Braves.

Two in the third. Milwaukee tied it. Cronenworth untied it.

Dustin May lasted three innings: three hits, two earned, two walks, three strikeouts, 52 pitches. San Diego scored twice in the third without extra-base damage. Samad Taylor singled. Jake Cronenworth bunted him to second. Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded to Cooper Pratt. Taylor scored. 1-0. Jackson Merrill singled. Manny Machado grounded a single to left. Merrill scored. 2-0. Ty France flew out. For the third straight game, San Diego grabbed an early two-run lead, the MLB recap said. For the third straight game, Milwaukee erased it.

Contreras did the erasing by himself in the fourth. He homered to left off Nick Pivetta, his second of the postseason. 2-1. The fifth finished the tie. Pratt singled. Sal Frelick singled. Joey Ortiz bunted them over. Jackson Chourio lifted a sacrifice fly to left. Pratt scored. 2-2. Pivetta left. Jason Adam walked Jake Bauers and allowed Contreras's single. Bases loaded. Yuki Matsui got Turang to bounce into a force. The inning died at 2-2. Milwaukee had the hit it needed and not the one after it.

Cronenworth hit the next one. Left-on-left against JoJo Romero, a fly to right, the MLB recap said. 3-2 Padres. Romero is 0-1. Cronenworth's homer was the lead San Diego did not give back. Pivetta's line: 4 1/3, five hits, two earned, no walks, four strikeouts, one homer, 69 pitches. He did not get a decision. Matsui got the win for a scoreless inning that still walked a batter and allowed a hit.

Bogaerts ran through a broken bat. Milwaukee got one back.

Bogaerts singled in the sixth off Antonio Senzatela. Miguel Andujar, pinch-hitting, chopped one that Pratt threw away. The MLB recap said Bogaerts leaped the broken bat on his way to third and kept going when the throw went wide. He slid in. 4-2. Unearned. It was the fourth run on six hits. Milwaukee had 11 hits and still trailed.

The seventh made it 4-3. Contreras singled. Turang singled. Yelich lined to center, Contreras scoring, his first playoff RBI since 2018, the AP recap said. Bradgley Rodriguez escaped with the lead: 1 1/3, three hits, one earned, three strikeouts, a hold. Milwaukee left 11 on, Pat Murphy told ESPN. "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?"

Abner Uribe threw a 1-2-3 eighth: Machado, France, Ethan Salas, all groundouts. King had already started pacing, the MLB recap said. Stammen said King walked into the office and told them he was available. He had thrown 72 pitches two days earlier. Six outs is six outs.

King retired Pratt on a lineout and Frelick on a groundout in the eighth. David Hamilton singled. Chourio grounded out. Then nobody got up in the Padres bullpen after King sat down, that wrap said. Morejon was not going to pitch. This was King's game. Contreras walked. Turang walked. Yelich hit the 107 mph one-hopper. Bogaerts started the double play. Inning over. Series still alive.

"Finally were able to come out on the right end of things in this one," Stammen said, per MLB.com.

Machado told that recap it was win or go home. Back against the wall. Nothing to lose but play the baseball they had played all year. Contreras finished 3-for-4 with a walk, a homer, two runs, and an RBI. Cronenworth went 2-for-2 with the homer. Taylor went 1-for-3 with a steal and the first run. Milwaukee outhit San Diego 11-6 and still lost. Pratt's error scored the fourth. Garrett Mitchell went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Bauers went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and a walk.

Buehler on Wednesday. Miller and Morejon still unknown.

Game 4 is Wednesday night at Petco Park. The MLB recap said the ball goes to Walker Buehler. Miller and Morejon remain questions. King said he wants to pitch in that one too. ESPN noted Milwaukee has lost 12 consecutive postseason road games dating to the 2018 NLCS. The Brewers still lead 2-1. One more Padres win sends this back to Milwaukee for Friday.

Stammen told ESPN it felt like they had played three straight games like this. Bogaerts said you cannot do much about the first two, then enjoy this one because it was a really good one. King became the 16th pitcher to throw five innings as a starter and record a save in the same playoff series since saves became official in 1969, the MLB recap said. The last was Buehler in the 2024 World Series. Fitting, that wrap called it.

San Diego found a way without the two relievers it had leaned on all year. Milwaukee hit 11 singles and a homer and still needed one more. Yelich's liner was 107. Bogaerts was there.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put San Diego at 8 team fantasy points on a 4-3. King had 9 pitching FP on two innings and a save. Contreras had 10 hitting FP in a loss. Cronenworth had 7. Milwaukee sat at 1. Those numbers are the escape: a win, four runs, three against, a starter closing, and a catcher who went 3-for-4 on the wrong side of the double play.

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.*