MILWAUKEE — It will be difficult.
After a crushing loss, the Padres need to make a big move.
Now they must fight to bring the National League Division Series back to American Family Field, the place where they just had a devastating weekend.
One out away from winning Game 2, the Padres lost Sunday when closer Mason Miller couldn’t get the last of the six outs he was asked to make.
After Miller loaded the bases on three walks, Jackson Chourio burned a ground ball up the middle that got past a diving Jake Cronenworth and into center field to bring in two runs and give the Brewers a 4-3 victory — and a daunting two-game-to-zero lead in the series that requires three wins from the Padres.
“I didn’t do my job today,” Miller said. “So instead of being here with a win and a tied series, we’re in a hole. So it really hurts.”
The Padres are in win-or-go-home mode for as long as they can make the NLDS last.
The teams will play Game 3 at Petco Park on Tuesday evening. And, if necessary, Game 4 would be there on Wednesday.
A team that felt like it was fighting from a corner for most of the final two months of the season was saying all the right things about its resilience in a quiet clubhouse Sunday night.
“I feel like that’s the kind of mentality we’ve been playing with all season,” Ty France said. “Not a lot of people expected us to be in this position. So even though we’re here, we’ve proven a lot of people wrong. But I feel like there’s still some left in the tank.”
However, they knew they had just lost in what was as close to a literal must-win situation as any non-elimination game can get.
Teams that lead 2-0 in a best-of-five series have won the series 89% of the time (83 of 93) since MLB introduced this format in 1969.
“Not a lot of teams have done it,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “So there’s a reason why it’s so difficult. … Obviously we want things to be different. It’s a tough situation here. But we’re going to fight out there and find a way to make it happen.”
Sunday’s midsection kick came a day after a crushing 3-2 defeat.
In the first game, the Padres went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and were pretty sure France hit a ball that would have been a home run in the ninth inning if it hadn’t hit a roof cable and fallen into Chourio’s glove on the warning track.
“We have to win,” France said. “There are no ifs and buts. We played two really good games, and it didn’t go the way we wanted. But go home and play every game like it’s your last.”
Sunday’s result was shocking, against the pitcher who had made the Padres virtually invincible in such situations.
The Padres were 77-1 when leading after eight innings during the regular season. Miller had converted 38 of his 41 save chances and posted a 1.67 ERA, allowing a run in just 12 of his 66 appearances.
“You’ll always feel good when Mason’s on the mound,” Tatis said.
There were other things to consider Sunday, including the fact that France’s two RBI singles were the Padres’ only hits in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position and that they failed to further convert the freebies the Brewers gave them.
With the help of two costly errors from a team that doesn’t make many, the Padres held a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.
An unusual error (actually two on the same play) by Cronenworth in that half inning allowed the Brewers to cut the lead to 3-2.
Another Brewers defensive mistake in the eighth didn’t end up costing them, as the Padres failed to convert after Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers failed to cover the bag and Samad Taylor’s sacrifice bunt attempt turned into a single and gave the Padres runners at first and second with no outs.
“Unable to break through and put the game away a little bit,” Stammen said.
The game began with both teams making a number of remarkable plays to earn hits and with Padres starting pitcher Michael King even more dominant for a time than he had been in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series.
King followed the longest no-hitter bid in Padres postseason history with the second-longest.
After allowing his first hit with one out in the seventh inning Tuesday against the Cubs, he held the Brewers hitless for 4⅔ innings Sunday.
That’s when Milwaukee rattled off three straight hits and cut what was a 2-0 lead in half.
After being totally dominant for most of five innings, King left after striking out the leadoff batter in the sixth inning.
Yuki Matsui took over and got three straight outs before giving up a single to lead off the seventh. He then got an out on a flyball that Jackson Merrill caught against the wall, but Matsui’s day ended with a walk.
Rodriguez relieved Matsui and appeared to get out of the seventh on David Hamilton’s grounder to Cronenworth at second base. The ball was hit pretty soft and Hamilton was quick enough for Cronenworth to rush in and move the ball before hitting a wild throw.
“I probably should have killed the play,” Cronenworth said. “I probably didn’t stand a chance on him anyway.”
The bobble allowed Hamilton to reach base and Garrett Mitchell, who hit the leadoff single, to score. The bad throw brought Hamilton to second base and Cooper Pratt, who had walked, to third before Rodriguez ended the inning with a groundout.
Although he later admitted that there was a possibility that Rodriguez would start the eighth if Matsui had been able to finish the seventh, Padres manager Craig Stammen said the Padres essentially planned to use Miller for six outs because Adrian Morejón was unavailable a day after throwing 31 pitches in two innings. And they went to Miller because the Brewers’ 2-3-4 hitters had to play in the eighth.
He managed to beat those batters on 12 pitches and used just two pitches to record the first out in the ninth before his command disappeared.
Padres notes: Ty France moves on; May 1 for Game 3, Jason Adam bounces back
With that, the Padres gave away a game that the Brewers almost gave them.
The Padres led by two runs twice.
They took the first lead against Brewers starter Logan Henderson.
The 24-year-old right-hander started the first inning by striking out Tatis and Dustin Harris on nine pitches and beating Manny Machado 0-2.
Machado ended up walking seven pitches before France also fell behind 0-2.
But Henderson bounced a changeup that got past catcher William Contreras, allowing Machado to run to second base. And France lined the next pitch to right center to bring in Machado.
Henderson started the second inning struggling to throw strikes, walking Gavin Sheets at first and Luis Campusano with one out. But Cronenworth and Tatis both hit the first pitch they saw to Chourio in left field.
These would be the first two of eight straight batters that Henderson retired to advance to fourth.
That sequence ended on Campusano’s soft line drive to left field, and the Padres ended up scoring again thanks to an error by one of the major leagues’ best infielders.
With Campusano on first base with one out, Tatis chopped a ball over the mound that appeared to be a certain double play, as all second baseman Brice Turang had to do was field the ball, step on the bag and throw it to first base.
But the ball went under Turang’s glove, through his legs and into center field. Campusano ran to third base and ended up scoring on Harris’ grounder.
Tatis was again involved in a Brewers mess in the seventh, as he reached base when Hamilton mishandled his slow grounder to the left side on what appeared to be the second out.
After Harris left, Machado walked and Ty France drove in Tatis with a single.
But they couldn’t add any in the eighth. And in the ninth, the team that chased fewer pitches out of the strike zone than any team in the major leagues made Miller pay for his lack of command.
“It’s a great team,” Stammen said. “You’ve seen how hard they fight us here in Milwaukee. But we like where we are when we play at home. We can defend our home court and then hopefully have a chance (for) a trip back to Milwaukee.”
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