Padres down 0-2 in NLDS after Miller called upon for 6 outs
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MILWAUKEE -- Come October, the Padres were always going to sink or swim with their bullpen -- the best in baseball all summer long.
They haven't been sunk just yet. But they’re taking on water after a stunning 4-3 loss to the Brewers on Sunday afternoon at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio hit a walk-off two-run single against San Diego's superstar closer Mason Miller, who was one strike away from his first six-out save as a Padre.
Miller loaded the bases in the ninth with a trio of walks, but got ahead of Chourio, who fought his way back into the count. Miller threw a 2-2 fastball and Chourio swatted it into center field, just past the outstretched glove of Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
And with that, the Brewers carry a 2-0 series lead back to San Diego. The Padres, of course, have been a juggernaut at Petco Park this season, with a 53-30 record, including a pair of playoff wins already. But they’ll need to win two straight Tuesday and Wednesday just to send this series back to Milwaukee for a decisive Game 5 on Friday.
In all best-of-five postseason series, teams with an 0-2 deficit have gone on to win the series just 10 of 93 times (11%). Teams that lost the first two games on the road in Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format have gone on to win the series only three of 36 times (8%). The last time a team rallied from an 0-2 hole in a best-of-five series came in the 2017 ALDS, with the Yankees advancing after dropping the first two games at Cleveland.
The Padres may be up against it going back home with three must-win games on deck, but Cronenworth has full confidence in his teammates.
"This group has been battle-tested for the last few months," Cronenworth said. "I wouldn’t pick a better group to have our backs against the wall."
But the most agonizing part of these first two games? They could’ve -- maybe should’ve -- won both. At least, both times, the game was in the hands of their lockdown bullpen. They wouldn’t want it any other way.
Which made the ending so unbelievably cruel.