The Clubhouse DJ: Garrett Mitchell Robs Machado as Brewers Close Out Padres 3-1 for an NLCS Rematch With the Dodgers
By Nate Mercer ·
Manny Machado hit Abner Uribe's second pitch 406 feet to right-center in the eighth inning Wednesday night, with Fernando Tatis Jr. on first and the Padres down two. Garrett Mitchell went back to the short wall at Petco Park, reached over the fence and came down with the ball. Machado pulled off his helmet. An inning later, Trevor Megill struck out pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets on a knuckle curve, and the Brewers had a 3-1 win in Game 4 and the NLDS, three games to one.
Milwaukee gets the Dodgers again in the NLCS, a year after Los Angeles swept them in the same round. Game 1 is Sunday at American Family Field, and Jacob Misiorowski will start it, MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported. Misiorowski was warming in the bullpen during the ninth in case Megill needed help. Megill didn't, and he has two saves in the series.
Mitchell's night started well before the catch. He came into the game 2-for-11 with six strikeouts in the series, according to MLB.com. In the third, Sal Frelick led off with an eight-pitch single to second base and stole second, and Mitchell hit a 110 mph ground ball into center to score him. Tatis tied it leading off the bottom half, sending Robert Gasser's 94 mph fastball 429 feet to dead center.
Mitchell led off the fifth with a triple to right on Robbie Ray's second pitch, and that was the end of Ray's night. Bradgley Rodriguez came in, Joey Ortiz grounded out to third with Mitchell holding, and Jackson Chourio lined a 98.9 mph sinker through a drawn-in infield to make it 2-1. It was Chourio's 17th career postseason RBI. That passed Ryan Braun for the franchise record and tied Andruw Jones for the most by a player before his 23rd birthday, according to MLB.com.
In the sixth, Jake Bauers singled off Jason Adam, Cooper Pratt hit a ground-rule double down the left-field line, and Frelick's sacrifice fly to left made it 3-1. Bauers reached base four times on a single and three walks.
Gasser got four innings out of 56 pitches against the organization that drafted him and traded him to Milwaukee in the 2022 Josh Hader deal. He loaded the bases with two outs in the first on a single, a bunt single, a forceout and a walk, then got Xander Bogaerts to pop up to first. The Tatis homer was the only run he allowed. He missed most of the previous two seasons after Tommy John surgery and didn't make the Opening Day roster, according to MLB.com. I have a soft spot for pitchers who take the long way around, and this was a long way around.
Aaron Ashby followed with three hitless innings on 38 pitches, with two walks and three strikeouts. His uncle, Andy Ashby, pitched eight seasons for the Padres and made two All-Star teams, according to MLB.com. Ashby started a 1-4-3 double play on Austin Hays in the sixth and ended the seventh by striking out Samad Taylor looking on a curveball with a pinch-runner on first. San Diego finished with three hits, and none came after the Tatis homer.
The Brewers kept giving the Padres chances to stay close. They went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base. In the seventh, Mason Miller, back from the paternity list after his son was born during Game 3, according to WISN, gave up two-out singles to William Contreras and Brice Turang and walked Bauers on four pitches. Pratt lined a 100 mph fastball to Jackson Merrill in center to end it.
Then came the eighth. Uribe walked Tatis on five pitches and struck out Merrill before Machado's drive. After the catch, Turang chased Ty France's popup into foul ground on the first-base side, got around Bauers and caught it before running into the wall. Machado hit a ball to the same part of Petco Park in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, and Adam Jones leaped at the wall in center to take that one away too, as The Big Lead pointed out. Baseball remains extremely weird.
The win ended Milwaukee's 12-game postseason road losing streak, which had tied the longest in major league history. Their last road playoff win had come in Game 3 of the 2018 NLCS at Dodger Stadium, against Walker Buehler, according to MLB.com. Buehler started for San Diego on Wednesday and lasted three innings.
The final out came at 12:08 a.m. Central. The Brewers won a franchise-record 103 games, and this is their second straight League Championship Series and fifth in franchise history. Their last three have all been against the Dodgers.