Brewers defeat Padres to face Dodgers in third straight NLCS

The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the San Diego Padres 3-1 in Game 4 of the NLDS on October 8 at Petco Park. The Brewers advance to the League Championship Series for the second straight season and the fifth time in franchise history, with their last three NLCS appearances against the Los Angeles Dodgers, setting up an unprecedented third consecutive matchup between the teams. The Brewers won the franchise-record 103 games in the regular season. Game 1 is Sunday at American Family Field, with the Dodgers having finished off the Braves in four games earlier on October 8. Walker Buehler started for the Padres on Wednesday night in Game 4. Robert Gasser, a left-hander and onetime Padres prospect traded to Milwaukee in the Josh Hader deal in 2022, pitched four effective innings for the Brewers after missing most of the previous two seasons rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Gasser escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning after third baseman Joey Ortiz opted not to risk throwing away the baseball on a potential double play grounder, and again in the fourth after rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt committed his third error in as many games. Gasser departed with Milwaukee leading 2-1. Garrett Mitchell, the former first-round Draft pick who battled four years of injuries before playing more games this season than his first four seasons combined, broke free from a 2-for-11, six-strikeout start to the series with an RBI single in the third inning and a leadoff triple in the fifth that led to the go-ahead run. Jackson Chourio, the 22-year-old, lined a one-out single through a drawn-in infield, driving in the go-ahead run. Chourio's RBI gave him 17 postseason RBIs, passing Ryan Braun for the Brewers franchise record and matching Hall of Famer Andruw Jones for the most postseason RBIs in Major League history for a player shy of his 23rd birthday. As of that moment, Chourio had driven in six of the Brewers' first 12 runs in the series. Sal Frelick's sixth-inning sacrifice fly made it 3-1. Aaron Ashby, left-hander whose uncle Andy pitched eight seasons for the Padres and made two All-Star teams, delivered three hitless innings. Abner Uribe pitched for the fourth time in five days. Trevor Megill logged his second save in the series. The Brewers had come up empty in each of their last 12 postseason road tries, tying for the longest road losing streak in the postseason in MLB history, according to MLB.com. The last time the Brewers had won on the road in the playoffs was Game 3 of the 2018 NLCS, when they beat Walker Buehler at Dodger Stadium. Defensive drama marked the Brewers' path to victory. Garrett Mitchell went all the way to Petco Park's short center-field wall to catch what would have been a tying, two-run homer off the bat of Manny Machado for the second out of the inning. Brice Turang made a tricky catch in foul ground to end the threat. According to Statcast, the Machado fly ball would have been a home run in 19 of 30 MLB ballparks, including American Family Field. In the NLDS, Skubal recorded 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 K's in Game 1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto recorded 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 10 K's in Game 3. Blake Snell recorded 3 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, 5 K's in Game 2. Tyler Glasnow recorded 4 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 5 BB, 5 K's in Game 4. The Dodgers' four-headed rotation recorded a combined 1.69 ERA (four earned runs in 21 1/3 innings) in four games against the Braves, per MLB.com reporting. The Dodgers are 7-0 when Glasnow pitches in a postseason game for them. Brewers manager Pat Murphy stated: "We have a monumental task ahead of us, based on what I know about the Dodgers. There's like an All-Star at every position. But you know what? Teams win. And we've got to play as a team." Christian Yelich is the Brewers' only active player left from 2018.