The two National League Wild Card Series continued on Wednesday, with the San Diego Padres defeating the Atlanta Braves 5-4 to advance to the next round, and the Milwaukee Brewers staving off elimination with a 5-3 win against the New York Mets to force a winner-take-all game on Thursday.
The American League side of the bracket had been played earlier in the day, with the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers eliminating the higher seeded Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros. As such, this postseason will see just one Game 3 in the initial round.
Let's touch on something you should know about both of the NL games. Below that, you can find the running commentary and analysis we provided throughout the night.
Padres stars lift San Diego to win, NLDS
San Diego's efforts to deliver a World Series title in recent years have been defined by the accumulation and development of stars. Consider it a fitting development, then, that it was the stars who delivered versus the Braves on Wednesday, paving the way for the Padres to advance for a showdown with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.
The Padres fell behind 1-0 in the first inning, but the Braves' lead didn't last long. Kyle Higashioka tied the game with a solo home run (his second in as many games) in the second inning. From there, it was all about San Diego's best-known talent.
Designated hitter Luis Arraez, outfielders Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jurickson Profar, third baseman Manny Machado, and star rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill stacked hit after hit following Higashioka's two-out homer, plating four additional runs in the process to give San Diego a 5-1 lead. The Braves would slice into it thanks to home runs from Jorge Soler and Michael Harris II, but the Padres held on to win 5-4.
Those aforementioned five players -- Arraez, Tatis, Profar, Machado, and Merrill -- combined for nine hits, four runs, four runs batted in, and a walk.
The one notable exception to San Diego's star party was shortstop Xander Bogaerts, a four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger winner. Fresh off his worst season in a decade, Bogaerts turned in an 0-for-4 night and left five runners on base.
It speaks to the quality of San Diego's lineup that they were still able to put up a big inning and advance onward in their quest for a World Series title.
Outfielders save Brewers season
The Brewers remained alive in their Wild Card Series against the Padres on Wednesday night, notching a come-from-behind 5-3 victory to force a decisive Game 3 on Thursday. The Brewers trailed by a 3-2 margin heading into the bottom of the eighth, but were able to prevail thanks to big hits from their collection of talented outfielders.
Jackson Chourio, the wunderkind who was the youngest regular in the majors this season, will receive most of the headlines. He became the first player in Brewers franchise history to record a multi-homer game. Both of his home runs were solo shots that tied the game -- first at 1-1 in the bottom of the first, then at 3-3 in the eighth. Chourio became the second player in MLB history to pull off hitting two game-tying home runs in the same postseason contest. The other? Babe Ruth.
Chourio wasn't alone in outfielder heroics. Garrett Mitchell, who didn't start the contest, entered the game as a pinch-runner for designated hitter Gary Sánchez. Mitchell would serve as the DH for the rest of the night, receiving a pivotal eighth-inning plate appearance that saw launch this decisive two-run shot:
Starting center fielder Blake Perkins, meanwhile, rapped two hits and contributed a sacrifice fly. Right fielder Sal Frelick contributed a hit, too. In all, the Brewers received six hits, three home runs, and five RBI from players who would regularly make up their outfield. In the process, they demonstrated why the Brewers ranked ninth in regular season OPS from outfielders -- and now, they'll be rewarded with a chance to advance to the NLDS.
