4 big takeaways from Brewers' thrilling NLDS Game 1 win

MILWAUKEE -- A clash between baseball's best team in the regular season -- the Brewers -- and one of the hottest teams down the stretch -- the Padres -- lived up to the hype. It was a tense battle throughout Saturday's Game 1 of the National League Division Series before the Brewers came away with a 3-2 win.

The series is nowhere near over, of course. But storylines developed that could loom large in the series.

Here are the four biggest takeaways from the series opener -- and how they might impact the rest of the NLDS:

1. Bullpens heavily used before the Padres blinked first
The Brewers owned the NL's best bullpen ERA in the regular season (3.40), but the Padres' back-end duo of Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon had the reputation of being more dominant.

When William Contreras blistered Morejon's 3-2 sinker for an opposite-field solo homer to right-center field to snap a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning, it broke the lefty reliever's 8 1/3 scoreless-inning streak in the postseason going back to the 2024 NLDS vs. the Dodgers.

"That bullpen is recognized as the best in the game, if not one of them," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "So to do it against their best guys was quite a feat."

Meanwhile, among the five relievers they used, the Brewers gave lefty DL Hall a high-leverage situation to get out of Abner Uribe's bases-loaded jam in the seventh before getting two more outs in the eighth. And closer Trevor Megill recorded a four-out save after having none of that type during the regular season. One of those outs in the ninth inning -- Ty France's towering drive that kissed off a cable near the roof and landed in Jackson Chourio's glove -- was the most unique of them all.

"Unfortunately a bad break for us," Padres manager Craig Stammen said.

"Amazing," Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski said of the bullpen work behind him. "Those guys were working their [butts] off to get through that game."

Although San Diego's relievers pitched 5 1/3 innings while Milwaukee's recorded 15 outs, the Padres could potentially still be in a better situation for Game 2. While the Brewers have Logan Henderson making his first postseason start, the Padres have ace Michael King starting.

King is coming off dominating the Cubs with one hit allowed over seven scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series.

"You have the two off-days in between if it goes five games," Stammen said. "So you can use your best guys pretty often. They did the same thing. They had their best starter going today. We have our best starter going tomorrow."

2. Padres had a plan for the Miz
Misiorowski opened the game with the fastest postseason pitch in the Statcast era at 104.8 mph, but the Padres showed they weren't intimidated by his high-octane gas. Hitters whiffed only four times on 28 swings at fastballs and fouled off 30 pitches to run up his pitch count.

When Misiorowski went to his secondary pitches, the Padres were on those, too. All four of their hits, plus a run-scoring fielder's choice in the top of the second inning, were on either a cutter or slider.

"Those guys had an approach and they stuck to it," Misiorowski said. "They did their job and I had to find a way to battle back."

After a 25-pitch top of the first inning, Misiorowski needed 33 pitches just to get through eight hitters in a two-run second.

That temporarily quieted the high-energy home crowd and led to a speedier exit for Misiorowski, who was finished after four innings and 88 pitches.

"We had a good approach against him today," Stammen said. "Sometimes that's hard to say it's by design. But we just wanted to compete in the box and the guys competed really well. To limit him to only four innings tonight was a job well done by our offense."

If the series goes to a Game 5 on Friday -- which Misiorowski would most likely start for Milwaukee -- San Diego's lineup should feel better about its chances after giving him a tough time on Saturday.

3. So the Brewers can hit homers
The Brewers were last in the NL and second-to-last in the Majors in home runs (154) during the regular season. Murphy opined Friday that "home runs are thrown … and you have to be ready when they are thrown. Maybe we weren't quite as ready as some other teams to hit them."

In Game 1, Milwaukee's hitters were definitely ready with all of their runs coming via the long ball. Before Contreras went deep in the seventh, Chourio jumped on a first-pitch slider from Robbie Ray in the third inning and slugged a two-run homer to left field at 113.3 mph to give the 22-year-old a franchise-best five career postseason homers.

"Obviously, there's a lot of people in the public opinion that think we're not able to connect with the big hits, with the homers," Contreras said via translator Daniel de Mondesert. "I like that today, that's how the game shook out and we were able to win like that. And we were able to show that we were able to play that game as well."

4. Winning Game 1 was very important for the Brewers
In all best-of-five postseason series, the team that wins Game 1 has gone on to win the series 73% of the time (116 of 160 series). Meanwhile, under the current LDS format, teams that win Game 1 at home have gone on to take the series 75% of the time (42 of 56).

In the 2025 NLDS, the Brewers won Game 1 over the Cubs and took the series in five games. In their last NLDS, 2024 vs. Los Angeles, the Padres lost Game 1 and went on to lose that series in five games.

That makes a strong performance for King paramount for the Padres on Sunday. Teams that take a 2-0 lead in any best-of-five series have gone on to win that series 83 of 93 times (88.9%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams to win Games 1 and 2 at home have advanced 33 of 36 times (91.2%).