Crew 'can't look behind': Chaotic game leads to sweep heading into 2025 NLCS rematch

SAN DIEGO – The Brewers will be tied for the most wins in Major League Baseball heading into this weekend’s NLCS rematch at Dodger Stadium, and manager Pat Murphy took a few moments Wednesday in the wake of getting swept by the Padres to remind the room of that.

It was time for a team meeting after the Brewers let one lead slip away in the eighth inning and another in the 11th while falling to the Padres, 4-3, at Petco Park, completing a three-game San Diego sweep in which Milwaukee’s hitters went 3-for-28 with 12 strikeouts with runners in scoring position. It’s not exactly the brand of momentum they wanted to carry north to Los Angeles for a four-game series that begins Thursday night.

“All I know is that on Aug. 12, we have the best record in baseball,” Murphy said. “And if you've got the best record in baseball, you're still going to go through times like this when things aren't very good, and everything seems to go against you. But it's in your head that things are going against you.

“You've got to not feel sorry for yourself and just keep your head up and not go, 'Oh, well now we've got the Dodgers. They're the best team.' You just get opportunity after opportunity, and take advantage.”

Thing is, the Brewers had many opportunities to take advantage on Wednesday, when Trade Deadline pickup Dustin May held the Padres to one run on four hits over seven-plus innings to lower his ERA to 2.08 through his first two Brewers starts. He carried a 2-1 lead into the eighth.

Then it got away.

Here’s how.

1. An eighth-inning bouncer

When May walked the leadoff hitter on four pitches leading off the eighth, the Brewers tapped the bullpen but didn’t call for ace setup man Abner Uribe. According to Murphy, he told coaches this week he wasn’t feeling great coming off 55 pitches in the final two games of the Brewers’ previous series against the Twins. So it was Chad Patrick who was first out of the ‘pen, followed by Aaron Ashby after Patrick issued back-to-back walks with two outs.

Ashby induced a Jake Cronenworth bouncer to the right side of the infield. Jake Bauers, who’d just moved from right field to first base for his defense, went for the baseball and fed it to Ashby, who couldn’t get to the bag in time. Meanwhile, the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. motored all the way home from second base to score the tying run.

With the benefit of hindsight, Bauers said he would have gone to first base himself or even thrown home. Ashby, who falls off the mound toward the third base side, conceded he needed a quicker first step toward first.

“That’s where we win games, is doing those small things correctly,” said Ashby. “When we don’t, it comes back to bite us. Just got to be better about doing the small things.

2. Too few runs

Believe it or not, the Brewers still rank top 10 in the Majors in batting average with runners in scoring position this season (10th with a .258 mark as of Wednesday evening). But they’ve been slipping down the rankings since the All-Star break (24th with a .220 average in the second half).

So, they’ve been trying hard to make things happen. When the Brewers managed to put a pair of runners on base in the ninth against Mason Miller, the best closer in baseball, Jackson Chourio fouled out and Brice Turang struck out. When Turang tried to steal third base to open the 10th inning with Padres’ lefty Adrian Morejon on the mound, he got a bad jump and was out.

When Morejon surrendered a go-ahead double to Gary Sánchez in the 11th and saw his command lapse, putting runners at the corners with still none out, the Brewers struck out three times – including once with two runners in scoring position and once with the bases loaded – giving them 12 strikeouts in 28 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the series.

Bauers identified a cure.

“I just think we need to chill the [bleep] out a little bit,” Bauers said.

Is that easier said than done going into a four-game series at Dodger Stadium?

"What's the worst that can happen, huh?” Bauers said. “We get swept on the road? We just did. We're all going to live. Just go in there, focus on what we can control and try and win some baseball games."

3. Great defense, just not enough of it

After all that, the Brewers were still alive thanks to their defense, including Garrett Mitchell’s game-saving catch to end the ninth inning with the winning run on second, and rookie right fielder Luis Lara’s remarkable over-the-shoulder catch of Jackson Merrill’s tying sacrifice fly in the 11th that likely would have won the Padres the game had it dropped.

The Brewers had a chance to force a 12th inning when Lara fielded a base hit from the next batter, Luis Campusano, and fired a strong throw home. It was slightly high, but Sánchez had the ball in his glove while the winning run was still several steps from home plate. But he couldn’t get a tag down in time.

“It's really hard for the catcher on a high throw to drop his knee and get in position to not let the guy sneak in there,” Murphy said.

Game over.

Series over.

On to Dodger Stadium for the Brewers.

“I'm proud as hell of this team,” Murphy said. “So for everybody who's looking, like, 'Oh, wow, what's going on?' The Padres are the hottest team in baseball. Look it up. They've got a bunch of superstars all playing good, and they've got a great pitching staff, especially their bullpen. …

“Just worry about ourselves and keep rolling and keep fighting, keep playing the way we have. We can't look behind. We have to play the way we play."

Is that the message he told the team?

"Exactly," Murphy said.