As of about 1:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, the San Diego Padres beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday night, cutting Milwaukee’s lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1 and keeping the series alive for Game 4 on Wednesday night.
The game started at 9:39 p.m. EDT at Petco Park in San Diego and lasted 202 minutes, so it ended in the early hours of Wednesday morning Eastern time. The attendance was 47,708, according to the league’s own data feed.
What the result means for the series
The Brewers won Game 1 in Milwaukee 3-2 on Oct. 3 and Game 2 4-3 on Oct. 4. Game 3 was the Padres’ first win of the series, and it kept their season alive.
Three games have now produced three one-run results. According to AP, this is the first playoff series since the 2021 National League Championship Series to begin that way.
Still open:
- Game 4 is Wednesday, Oct. 7, at Petco Park, with first pitch at 10:00 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. PT). Walker Buehler is the Padres’ starter, according to the league feed, AP and MLB.com.
- Game 5, if it is needed, is Friday in Milwaukee, according to AP.
How the scoring went
The league’s feed lists the Brewers first in its line score. The table below follows that order, with the running score written as Padres-Brewers for clarity.
| Inning | Play (summary of the official description) | Score after | |—|—|—| | Bottom 3 | Fernando Tatis Jr. grounds out; Samad Taylor scores | Padres 1, Brewers 0 | | Bottom 3 | Manny Machado singles to left; Jackson Merrill scores | Padres 2, Brewers 0 | | Top 4 | William Contreras homers to left field | Padres 2, Brewers 1 | | Top 5 | Jackson Chourio’s sacrifice fly to left; Cooper Pratt scores | Padres 2, Brewers 2 | | Bottom 5 | Jake Cronenworth homers to right field | Padres 3, Brewers 2 | | Bottom 6 | Miguel Andujar reaches on a throwing error by shortstop Cooper Pratt; Xander Bogaerts scores | Padres 4, Brewers 2 | | Top 7 | Christian Yelich singles to center; Contreras scores | Padres 4, Brewers 3 |
The Brewers’ line by inning was 0-0-0-1-1-0-1-0-0. The Padres’ was 0-0-2-0-1-1-0-0-x. The feed shows 11 hits for the Brewers and 6 for the Padres. It also shows one error for the Brewers, none for the Padres, and 11 Brewers runners left on base against 4 for the Padres.
MLB.com wrote that for the third straight game San Diego grabbed an early two-run lead and Milwaukee erased it. Cronenworth’s homer against reliever JoJo Romero put the Padres in front for good, according to MLB.com. AP reported that Cronenworth lined Romero’s first pitch of the fifth over the right-field wall, for only his second hit of this postseason.
Yuki Matsui got the win and Romero took the loss, according to the feed.
The defense and the ending
AP called the game a “stellar defensive performance” for the Padres. Two plays stood out.
In the fifth, Bogaerts dived to keep a Contreras single in the infield with two runners on, which AP said likely saved at least one run.
In the sixth, Bogaerts singled and moved up on a wild pitch, according to AP. AP described the next play: Andujar’s grounder and a broken bat came toward Pratt, who bounced his throw for an error, and Bogaerts scored. MLB.com wrote that Bogaerts evaded the grounder and the broken bat “in one leaping motion” on his way to third.
The ninth was tense. Michael King walked Contreras and Brice Turang. Then Yelich hit a ball 107 mph, according to AP and MLB.com. Bogaerts went down to his knees to field it on a short hop, touched second base and threw to first. The feed’s official wording is: “Christian Yelich grounds into a double play, shortstop Xander Bogaerts to first baseman Ty France. Brice Turang out at 2nd. Christian Yelich out at 1st.”
“Can’t do much about the first two games, but all three games have been really good baseball,” Bogaerts said, according to AP. “Once tomorrow comes, let’s go for it, but right now let’s enjoy this one, because this was a really good one.”
Why King pitched the last two innings
King had thrown 72 pitches in five innings as the starter in Game 2, according to MLB.com. On Tuesday he came in for the eighth and ninth, and MLB.com counted his 40th pitch as the slider Yelich hit. By AP’s count, it was his first save since 2023, his first in the postseason and his first for the Padres. MLB.com said only that it had been more than four years since he last recorded a save, so the two outlets do not agree on the length of the gap.
Two relievers were unavailable:
- Mason Miller, the closer, called the team a few hours before the game, according to MLB.com, and was placed on the paternity list about 45 minutes before first pitch, according to AP. MLB.com reported that Miller called because his wife had gone into labor Tuesday afternoon, according to the Padres. Left-hander Wandy Peralta took his spot on the roster. Miller had a 1.67 ERA in 66 regular-season appearances, according to MLB.com.
- Adrian Morejon, the top setup man, is dealing with fatigue in his left shoulder. “Stickiness,” manager Craig Stammen called it, according to AP and MLB.com. MLB.com reported that Morejon played catch and threw off the bullpen mound before the game, but the Padres chose not to push it.
“It was hard to map out from the beginning,” Stammen said, according to MLB.com. “Just because both of those guys are unavailable, and we’d relied on them so much throughout the year. It was a chance for the other guys to pick those two up.”
Of King, Stammen said, according to MLB.com: “He came in the office today and said I’m available.”
King said, according to AP: “I know that I have bullets in my arm that I don’t want to save. If you’re in an elimination game, you want everybody to be all in on it, and … we have a bunch of dogs down there that are all in.”
MLB.com reported that King became the 16th pitcher since saves became an official stat in 1969 to throw five innings as a starter and record a save in the same playoff series. It added that the previous one was Buehler in the 2024 World Series.
The Brewers’ night
Milwaukee has the best record in baseball, with 103 wins, according to MLB.com. It left 11 runners on base and never led.
- Contreras was 3-for-4 with a home run and a walk, according to the feed.
- Yelich’s seventh-inning single was his first playoff RBI since he homered in Game 7 of the 2018 NLCS, according to AP.
- Chourio’s sacrifice fly was his 16th RBI in 15 career postseason games. According to AP, that ties Ryan Braun for the franchise record.
- The loss was Milwaukee’s 12th consecutive postseason road game lost, dating to the 2018 NLCS, according to AP.
“That’s part of baseball,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, according to AP. “When you’re facing a good team with a good pitching staff, that’s part of it. 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? They’ve got a great team, and they played great defense tonight.”
Stammen said of the series, according to AP: “It feels like we’ve played three straight games against the Brewers like that. We finally were able to come out on the right end of things in this one. A lot of big effort from a lot of guys during the game to get us to the final score.”
Machado said, according to MLB.com: “At the end of the day, it was win or go home, right? Back up against the wall. We had nothing to lose but go out there and play our baseball like we’ve been doing all year.”
Cronenworth said of King, according to MLB.com: “It’s all hands on deck. He went out there and picked us up big time.”
What is not known yet
- Whether Miller is back for Game 4. MLB.com reported early Wednesday that Miller could return for Game 4; pitching coach Ruben Niebla said, “That’s what we’re anticipating.” The league’s transactions feed, queried about 1:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday, showed Miller placed on the paternity list on Oct. 6 and no activation. Under the paternity list rules, a player is away from the team one to three days. MLB.com reported that if Miller is not back Wednesday, he would rejoin the roster for a potential Game 5 on Friday, with Peralta giving way.
- Morejon’s status. MLB.com’s report gives no timeline for his return.
- The Brewers’ Game 4 starter. AP said Milwaukee had not announced one, and the league’s schedule feed, checked about 1:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday, still listed none. AP listed Robert Gasser, Shane Drohan and Chad Patrick as available, after starting a combined 45 games this season.
- How the Padres follow Buehler. MLB.com wrote that it is unclear how San Diego plans to follow him, because that depends on Miller and Morejon.