The Brewers’ offense has been scuffling a bit of late, and there’s been a bit of a predictable come-down after the team clinched the division on Sunday. But this is a proud Milwaukee team that still has something to play for — the top seed in the entire playoff bracket — and while the offense’s problems were not necessarily solved today, they did just enough to capitalize on an excellent team pitching performance. With their 96th win today, the Brewers matched the 2018 and 2011 teams for the most in franchise history.
Today’s pitching matchup began with Milwaukee’s Chad Patrick, whose role remains an interesting question heading into the postseason, and San Diego’s Dylan Cease, who finished second and fourth in Cy Young voting in 2022 and 2024, respectively, but has been underwhelming in 2023 and 2025. Christian Yelich got things started by hitting a tapper to short that he beat to first base, and he was allowed to advance to second when Xander Bogaerts’ throw squirmed away from first baseman Luis Arraez and into the dugout. Cease recovered to strike out Jackson Chourio, get Brice Turang on a flyout to right, and Andrew Vaughn on a groundout to short.
Arraez started the Padres’ half of the first by slapping a single into center field off of Patrick. Patrick came back with strikeouts of Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill — the latter on three pitches — before issuing a two-out walk to Gavin Sheets. Bogaerts, up next with two on, got a hold of a 2-2 pitch and hit it deep to center in a place that looked like trouble, but Chourio leapt at the wall and brought it back for the third out.
Sal Frelick led off the second with a patented pesky eight-pitch Frelick at-bat, but it unfortunately ended with him watching a fastball go right down the middle for strike three. Durbin also struck out looking, on a 1-2 slider that may have been off the plate but which was probably too close to take. Jake Bauers put one off the wall in right for a two-out double, but Andruw Monasterio struck out, and Bauers was stranded at second.
The shaky start to Patrick’s afternoon continued when Ryan O’Hearn lined a single to center to lead off the bottom of the second. But after a bit of a battle, Patrick struck out Ramón Laureano looking, got Jake Cronenworth to fly out to Bauers in left, and struck out Freddy Fermín swinging. 0-0 after two.
Jansen led off the third, and after being fortunate not to be rung up on a close 2-2 slider, he walked. Yelich worked to a full count before hitting a tapper back to Cease, who threw to second to get Jansen, but an imperfect throw meant that Yelich was able to avoid a double play. Chourio tried to bunt for a hit on the first pitch he saw; it wasn’t a very good bunt, and Cease fielded it with plenty of time to make a throw to first, but this throw, too, was off target; Arraez was unable to stay on the base, and Chourio was safe at first on an E1. With two on and one out, Turang hit a ball into the hole that Bogaerts dove to field. He threw to second, and Chourio was called out on a close play, but Pat Murphy challenged the play, and Chourio was clearly safe. The Brewers had the bases loaded with one out for Vaughn, but he grounded into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play, and Milwaukee’s somewhat concerning recent futility with runners in scoring position continued.
An Arraez walk to lead off the bottom of the third meant that San Diego’s leadoff hitter had reached to start each inning. But Patrick again struck out both Machado and Merrill, and Arraez, who ran on the 3-2 strikeout pitch to Merrill, was nabbed for a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play to end the inning.
Frelick tomahawked a fastball that was about a foot high and a little outside into right field for a leadoff single in the fourth. After Durbin flew out to shallow center for the first out, Bauers attempted to drop a surprise bunt on a heavily shifted infield and nearly had a hit, but it went just foul. But the next four pitches missed (one of which was arguable), and Bauers walked, and once again the Brewers were set up with traffic on the bases. But Cease struck out Monasterio and Jansen, and the Brewers had stranded seven batters, five of them in scoring position, through four innings.
Patrick’s pitch count was at 57 through three innings, which is similar to what he threw in his last outing (which went 4 1/3 innings), and the Brewers moved to Erick Fedde in the fourth. Fedde got a quick first out with help from Frelick, who made a diving catch on a sinking line drive from Sheets. Three pitches later, and Bogaerts grounded to third for the second out, and O’Hearn popped out on the second pitch he saw, and Fedde had a tidy eight-pitch inning.
After Yelich and Chourio went down waving at breaking balls, Turang lined a two-out single to left. An extremely wild pitch with Vaughn batting allowed Turang to advance all the way from first to third, but he’d likely have scored anyway after Vaughn lined a 3-2 slider into the left-field corner for, finally, an RBI hit with a runner in scoring position. Vaughn had a double, and Cease was up to 98 pitches. He stayed in to face Frelick, who popped out to second for the third out on Cease’s 100th pitch. But Milwaukee had finally broken through, leading 1-0.
Bryce Johnson tried to bunt for a hit to lead off the bottom of the fifth, but Fedde made a nifty barehanded play and threw him out. Cronenworth hit a grounder up the middle to a perfectly placed Monasterio for the second out, and Fermín struck out looking for out number three. Two good innings from Fedde.
David Morgan, a right-hander, replaced Cease in the sixth. He got Durbin to ground out, but allowed a baserunner when Bauers walked for the second time. But with Monasterio batting, Bauers was thrown out trying to steal second, and on the next pitch Monasterio struck out for the third time in the game, swinging wildly at a curveball way off the plate.
Joey Ortiz replaced Monasterio defensively in the bottom of the sixth, and he got some immediate action when Arraez grounded out to him for the first out. Machado struck out for the third time, but Merrill hit a 1-2 cutter on the outside corner over the wall in the short left-field corner to tie the game at one. Not an especially bad pitch from Fedde, who was perfect through eight batters before Merrill soured his afternoon. With the lefty Sheets coming up, Murphy moved to Aaron Ashby, who struck out Sheets to end the inning.
Jansen led off the seventh by lining a single to center off of lefty Adrian Morejon, San Diego’s new pitcher. But the lefty-lefty matchup worked on Yelich, who grounded into a double play. Chourio lined a 1-2 changeup into right field for a two-out single, and he stole second base with Turang at the plate. That was a big steal, as Turang came through with a two-out RBI single, his third hit of the game, restoring the Brewers’ lead. Vaughn hit one pretty deep to center, but Merrill made the catch on the warning track. 2-1 Brewers heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Ashby was done after his five-pitch strikeout of Sheets, and he was replaced by Nick Mears, still looking for his first scoreless outing since coming off the IL on September 17. Bogaerts led off the inning by reaching on an infield single after Durbin’s throw from the far corner of the infield was just late. O’Hearn jumped on the first pitch he saw and had a single, too, and Mears was in trouble with two on and nobody out. Johnson dropped down a successful sac bunt, setting the Padres up with runners on second and third and one out.
After a visit from Chris Hook, the Brewers elected to intentionally walk Cronenworth to load the bases for Fermín and create a potential double play opportunity. Fermín had a couple of good cuts but fouled them off, then struck out looking on a 2-2 slider. Fermín and Padre manager Mike Schildt did not like the call; both somewhat understandably (and politely, I’m sure) pointed out that several pitches in that location had been called balls earlier. Schildt was ejected, and Fermín was out. Arraez had a chance with the bases still loaded, but he flew out to Chourio in center, and Mears had wriggled off the hook.
Kyle Hart, another left-hander, replaced Morejon in the eighth. Frelick flew out harmlessly to center for the first out, and Durbin made the second out on a hard grounder to third that Machado knocked down, picked up, and threw to first. Rhys Hoskins entered as a pinch-hitter for Bauers, and he flew out to right. A quick inning for Hart.
Jared Koenig was the new Brewer pitcher in the eighth, and the Brewers moved to their defense-first outfield of Chourio, Blake Perkins, and Frelick. Koenig started by striking out Machado on three pitches, the fourth strikeout of Machado’s miserable day. Merrill swung at the first pitch, a curveball low, and flew out to shallow left. Sheets reached with two outs when he hit a dribbler down the first-base line, which Koenig fielded and flipped to first, but too high for Vaughn to catch without leaving the bag. Bogaerts got ahead in the count but grounded out on a very similar play to the infield hit he’d gotten in the previous inning, just hit hard enough that this time Durbin got him by a step.
Ortiz got his first plate appearance to start the ninth, and he grounded out to third base to start things against the new pitcher, Jeremiah Estrada. But with one out, Jansen got into one, with the only question being fair or foul: it stayed fair, hitting off the third floor of the Western Metal Supply Company in left field. A big insurance run for Milwaukee, on Jansen’s second homer as a Brewer. Yelich flew out to left, and Chourio hit a ton of foul balls but popped out on the ninth pitch to end the inning. Milwaukee would hand Abner Uribe a 3-1 lead.
Uribe, it turns out, didn’t need the cushion. O’Hearn flew out to shallow right, and Johnson and Cronenworth struck out. The Brewers won, matching the franchise record with their 96th win.
Patrick, Fedde, Ashby, Mears, Koenig, and Uribe combined to strike out 13 while allowing just one run on six hits and three walks today, the only blemish being the last batter Fedde faced after 2 2/3 perfect innings. Offensively, Turang was 3-for-4 with the big go-ahead RBI single. Vaughn and Bauers both hit doubles, while Jansen reached three times on a day in which he was 2-for-3 with a solo homer and a walk.
Tomorrow is the last off day of the regular season, with Cincinnati visiting American Family Field for the last series of the year beginning on Friday. A Phillies loss before then would mean that Milwaukee is not technically playing for anything; Philadelphia plays tonight and tomorrow against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.
