San Diego got three hits on Wednesday night. Three. The Padres lost Game 4 to the Brewers 3-1 at Petco Park, lost the Division Series 3-1, and went out with Milwaukee retiring their last 24 hitters in a row.
Entering Game 4 the Padres were hitting .206/.300/.257 as a team in the series. The slugging number is the one that should keep A.J. Preller up at night. A .257 slug means almost nothing was hit hard. Fernando Tatis Jr.’s leadoff homer in the third turned out to be San Diego’s last hit of 2026.
In Game 4, hitters four through nine went 0-for-18. San Diego went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and left five on. Manny Machado hit a ball 106.7 mph in the eighth with a .960 expected batting average, and Garrett Mitchell caught it above the center field wall. “The game is a matter of inches,” Machado said.
The Pitching Was Never the Problem
Every game in this series was decided by two runs or fewer. Per MLB.com, it was the first postseason series in 111 years in which neither team ever led by more than two. San Diego’s bullpen worked constantly and finally sagged in Game 4 after Walker Buehler was pulled one batter into the fourth.
Adrian Morejon’s shoulder went sore after 31 pitches in Game 1 and he never pitched again in the series. Erik Miller blew Game 2, missed Game 3, then pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh on Wednesday. Joe Musgrove threw two scoreless innings. The arms were good enough to win this series. The lineup never gave them the chance.
Now the Hard Part
This is the third straight season that has ended in the NLDS or the Wild Card round, and this roster is not built to be patient. Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth and Machado are all in their 30s on long-term deals. The Padres went 91-71 and were 41-18 after July 23, the best record in baseball over that stretch, and it bought them four playoff games.
The pitching staff could look unrecognizable in April. Michael King can opt out of two years and $58 million, owed $28 million in 2027 with a $5 million buyout and $30 million in 2028. He says he will decide after the World Series. Morejon, Ty France, Buehler, Robbie Ray, Casey Mize and Jason Adam are all headed for free agency. Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta hold opt-outs. The Padres have a club option on Nick Pivetta.
About $196 million is already committed for 2027, eighth most in baseball. Payroll has sat around $220 million for three years, first under the Seidler family and now under Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, who bought the club for $3.9 billion this year. Feliciano’s framing was blunt: “We need to win the World Series. It’s that simple.”
He has also said, “If not this year, then next.” That is exactly the trap. Next is a winter with a December 1 labor deadline hanging over it, a possible salary cap in the next agreement, and a core that gets a year older. Preller signed an extension in February and is not going anywhere. Craig Stammen, in his first year managing, said the team is proud but not satisfied.
Fine. Then act like it. Keep King at whatever it costs, pick up Pivetta, and stop treating a lineup that just produced three hits in an elimination game as a finished product. San Diego has run this same roster into the same wall three Octobers running. The window does not reopen because ownership wants it to.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.