Padres avoid elimination after 4-3 win over Brewers in NLDS Game 3

SAN DIEGO — Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking homer, Game 2 starter Michael King pitched the final two innings on one day of rest and the San Diego Padres avoided playoff elimination with a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of their NL Division Series on Tuesday night.

Xander Bogaerts turned a game-ending double play at shortstop for the Padres, who trimmed Milwaukee’s lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1 with a tense, back-and-forth victory over the MLB-best Brewers.

Game 4 is Wednesday night at Petco Park. If necessary, Game 5 will be back in Milwaukee on Friday.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado drove in early runs for the Padres, but their bullpen didn’t have star closer Mason Miller, who went on the paternity list about 45 minutes before the first pitch. King stepped up after pitching five innings just two days ago and finished it off — but only after a thrilling ninth.

The right-hander retired four of his first five batters, but William Contreras and Brice Turang drew one-out walks in the ninth. Christian Yelich then cracked a 107 mph line drive up the middle, where Bogaerts went down to his knees to field it on a short hop and scampered to touch second base before throwing out Yelich at first to end it.

King earned his first save since 2023, his first in the postseason and his first for the Padres.

Contreras homered and had three hits for the Brewers, who lost their 12th consecutive postseason road game dating to the 2018 National League Championship Series.

Yelich even got his first playoff RBI since 2018 with a seventh-inning single, but Milwaukee fell behind early and never led, leaving 11 runners on base.

Padres back on track

The Padres had won 19 of 22 and swept the Cubs out of the Wild Card Series before losing two straight heartbreakers in Milwaukee last weekend, but they are fighting to stay with the majors’ best regular-season team.

The clubs have played three consecutive one-run games in this NLDS, all decided by late-game execution — and this time, the Padres came through.

They were also bailed out by King, largely a reliever early in his major league career with the Yankees. This game was just his third relief appearance in three seasons with San Diego — and according to OptaStats, he is the first pitcher to start a postseason game and then earn a two-inning save within the next two days since saves became an official statistic in 1969.

Back-and-forth game

Neither starter excelled on a tense, uncommonly hot October night in downtown San Diego. Nick Pivetta yielded two runs and five hits while pitching into the fifth for the Padres, and Dustin May got pulled abruptly with a 1-0 count on Bogaerts and a runner on in the fourth.

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Samad Taylor and Jackson Merrill put San Diego ahead in the third when both singled, stole second and scored. Contreras answered with his second homer of the series, adding a theatrical trot around the bases.

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Cooper Pratt tied it right after Pivetta’s exit when Dustin Harris couldn’t throw him out on Jackson Chourio’s 242-foot sacrifice fly. It was the fifth RBI of the series for the 22-year-old Chourio and his 16th in 15 career postseason games, already tying Ryan Braun for the franchise record.

Cronenworth lined JoJo Romero’s first pitch of the fifth over the wall in right for only his second hit of the postseason.

Bogaerts then singled in the sixth, advanced on a wild pitch and scored when Pratt bounced his throw from shortstop for an error after Miguel Andujar’s broken bat came flying toward him along with the grounder.

San Diego’s outfield couldn’t get to Turang’s bloop single with two outs in the seventh, and Yelich singled home Contreras for his first playoff RBI since he homered in Game 7 of the 2018 NLCS against the Dodgers — a span of 87 plate appearances over 19 games.

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Neither team had announced its Game 4 starter.