Tony Gwynn used to have a saying about all the weird things that transpired around the Padres during his 20 years playing for the club.
“We are the Pads,” he’d say, meaning whatever could go wrong went wrong.
And on Saturday night, a lot went wrong in San Diego’s 3-2 loss to the Brewers during Game 1 of their National League Division Series at Milwaukee’s American Family Field.
The team that had so much go right for the last two months will now have a quick turnaround to avoid going down 2-0, with Game 2 set for Sunday at noon PT with Michael King going for the Padres against rookie Logan Harrison for the Brewers.
Let’s begin with the potential game-winning two-run homer Ty France hit with one out in the ninth inning off Brewers closer Trevor Megill that deflected off a metal roof railing and fell harmlessly into the glove of left fielder Jackson Chourio for the second out.
“I’ve never seen that happen in the four years I’ve been playing here,” said Megill, who recorded only his third four-out save in this calendar year.
The ground rule states that if a ball hits any part of the closed roof in fair territory, the ball is in play wherever it lands. If it hits in foul territory the ball is dead.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy invoked the memory of their late and great announcer Bob Uecker to explain what transpired.
“The only thing that you could probably figure on the ball that everybody’s going to be talking about is that Ueck decided to put his hand on it and swat it down so Chourio could catch it. So thanks, Ueck,” Murphy said.
The umpires ruled the ball hit in fair territory. The Padres challenged and were overruled. Jackson Merrill then flew out to right, ending the game with the tying run on first, giving Milwaukee a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
Padres manager Craig Stammen said you have to laugh about it.
“We joked at the umpire meeting today about what would happen if the ball hit the roof,” Stammen said. “Unfortunately it was a bad break for us. It looked like it was a possible home run. Just didn’t go our way. We should be able to bounce back just fine from it.”
Sunday’s game is now a must-win for the Padres with Games 3 and 4 Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at Petco Park. Teams that win Game 1 of a Division Series go on to capture that series 72% of the time.
The Brewers, who were next to last in Major League Baseball this season with 154 homers, won on blasts by Chourio and William Contreras, whose solo shot broke a 2-2 tie and came with two out in the seventh inning off Padres’ usually solid reliever Adrian Morejon.
We are the Pads.
Aside from the weird roof ball, the Padres had plenty of chances to win the game.
Despite chasing Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski after four innings, matching his shortest outing of the year — he did it twice during the regular season in 30 starts — the Padres stranded 12 men on base and were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
They stranded the bases loaded in the second and again in the seventh, scoring their only two runs in the second on a single by Luis Campusano and a hustle play when Ethan Salas scored on an infield grounder and errant throw to the plate.
Manny Machado grounded to short to end the inning with the bases loaded and the Padres leading 2-0.
“Anytime you score first in a playoff game you feel really good about it, especially the type of pitching staff we have,” Stammen said. “We just got beat by a couple home runs.”
Chourio tied the score with a two-run shot against Padres starter Robbie Ray in the third inning. Ray was given the start and placed on the roster because Walker Buehler went home on three days of paternity leave.
Again the nuances of MLB rules: Had Buehler been simply left off the roster, he could not have pitched in the series. In this case, he can return after his leave and sub out Randy Vasquez, who temporarily took his place. Buehler is certainly a candidate to start Game 3.
In the meantime, there was concern about Ray, a 35-year-old left-hander who was obtained from the Giants at the trade deadline and has since pitched erratically. Stammen was hoping Ray could work through the Brewers lineup at least twice, but he fell apart after an uneventful first two innings, allowing the Churio homer, two walks and a single when the Milwaukee lineup turned around for a second time, thus forcing Stammen to go to the bullpen way too early.
In the meantime, the Padres established an interesting game plan to nullify the right-handed Misiorowski. They chipped away at him, fouling off numerous pitches – 57 of the 88 he threw according to the FS1 telecast.
“We had a good approach against him.” Stammen said. ”We were able to foul some balls off. Sometimes that’s hard to say it’s by design. But we just wanted to compete in the box and the guys competed really well. To limit him to only four innings was a job well done by our offense.”
It was a miserable job otherwise by the Padres offense, punctuated when Megill came into the game to face Fernando Tatis in the eighth inning with two out and runners on the corners. Megill punched Tatis out on three pitches.
The rafters then got in the way in the ninth. What could go wrong went wrong, the Padres proved again.
