MILWAUKEE -- It went in at 101 mph from the right hand of Mason Miller.
It came back at 110 mph off the bat of Jackson Chourio.
Jake Cronenworth laid out at second base. Missed it by inches. Jackson Merrill came up throwing from center field. Late, by half a second. The Brewers poured out of the home dugout, through a stunned group of Padres infielders.
Miller, San Diego’s superstar closer, stared straight ahead for a moment, inhaled deeply, then began a slow walk off the mound.
He had been called upon for the last six outs in Game 2 of the National League Division Series. He only got five.
Through two games, the margins in this NLDS have been razor thin. Agonizingly thin. By record, the Brewers were the best team in baseball over the course of the season. The Padres have matched them nearly every step of the way.
And yet … they’ll head back to San Diego with their backs against the wall, trailing two games to none, following a stunner of a 4-3 loss to Milwaukee on Sunday evening at American Family Field. Chourio’s walk-off two-run single proved decisive, after Miller had walked the bases loaded in the ninth.
“I didn’t do my job today,” Miller said from a pin-drop quiet visitors' clubhouse. “Instead of being here with a win and the series tied, we’re in a hole.”
Not an insurmountable one. But a big one, to be sure.
In best-of-five postseason series, teams with an 0-2 deficit have gone on to win the series just 10 of 93 times (11%). No team has rallied from such an 0-2 hole since the Yankees dropped the first two games of the 2017 ALDS in Cleveland.
“It's a big challenge,” said manager Craig Stammen. “They're a great team. You saw how hard they battled us here in Milwaukee. But we like where we are when we play at home.”
You wouldn’t put it past these Padres, who went 53-30 at Petco Park this year, including two playoff victories against the Cubs. In late July, they sat in 11th place in the National League, three games below .500. Then they reeled off a 41-18 finish, leapfrogging seven teams in front of them into the playoffs and into a home Wild Card Series.
Only one team in baseball posted a better record in the second half: the team they’re playing this week. The Padres could’ve won Game 1, if not for a cable on the roof of American Family Field. They could’ve won Game 2, if their lights-out closer had found the strike zone two batters earlier.
“It sucks,” said Ty France, who drove in two runs on Sunday in response to Saturday’s bizarre ending. “Could very easily be going home up 2-0. But the reality is, we're not. We have to win. No ifs, ands or buts. Got to play our best baseball.”
Thing is, for the most part, the Padres have. They haven’t been perfect. Cronenworth’s error was costly, allowing the Brewers to pull a run back in the seventh. Manny Machado ran into an out at third base earlier in the inning. Through two games, the Padres are 3-for-18 with men in scoring position. They’ve stranded 20 baserunners.
And yet … they’ve twice put the game in the hands of their bullpen -- a bullpen they’d built for this moment. The best bullpen in baseball.
And twice, they’ve lost.
“The series isn’t over,” Miller said. “We’ve got another shot to play in two days. We wouldn’t be in this position -- in this series -- if we hadn’t been able to move past difficulties and challenges. That goes for the group. But that’s also going to go for the individual -- for me.
“We have the ability to turn the page and trust that I’ve had a lot more success than I’ve had failure this year. Just control what I can control. Today, that’s obviously putting guys on base.”
Miller turned in one of the best relief seasons in recent memory. He posted a 1.67 ERA and struck out 129 hitters, more than any Padres reliever ever. Twice this season, he was called upon to record six outs -- and did so without a blemish.
The Padres asked for it again on Sunday. They’d ridden their bullpen hard in Game 1, but Miller was left unused. He made quick work of Milwaukee in the eighth. The ninth was another story. With one out, Miller walked Christian Yelich. Then, he walked Sal Frelick.
“Guys like that don't give up multiple hits in innings very often,” Frelick said. “He was tasked with six outs today. So we wanted to kind of put the pressure on him, see if we could get some guys on.”
Andrew Vaughn flied to center for the second out, bringing pinch-hitter (and former Padre) Gary Sánchez to the plate. Chourio loomed on deck. Miller threw a 2-2 fastball to Sánchez below the zone. Ball three. He threw a 3-2 slider inside. Ball four.
And, really, that’s where the game was lost.
“Start the ninth over, and throw everything down the middle,” Miller lamented afterward. “If they hit it, they hit it. The cardinal rule is you don’t beat yourself. I beat myself today. A base hit with nobody on doesn’t win them the game. A base hit after you walked the bases loaded does.”
Miller’s 2-2 fastball to Chourio was … fine: 101.3 mph on the outer half. But at that point, Miller acknowledged he wasn’t going for location. He’d lost his command entirely.
“I was just trying to be in the strike zone,” he said.
This time, he was.
“I knew that he was gonna come at me with the fastball at some point,” Chourio said. “So, mentally I was just making sure that I was prepared for that.”
A short while later, the Padres were on a flight bound for San Diego. They’d like to be boarding another flight later this week.
“We can defend our home field,” Stammen said. “And then hopefully have a chance for a return trip back to Milwaukee.”