Padres Season Ends with 3-1 Game 4 Loss to Brewers; Mitchell's Wall Catch Seals NLDS Exit

The San Diego Padres' 2026 season ended Wednesday night at Petco Park in a 3-1 Game 4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, who advanced to the National League Championship Series for the second consecutive year.

Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell delivered the series' defining moment in the bottom of the eighth inning, leaping at the wall to rob Manny Machado of what would have been a game-tying two-run home run, according to the MLB.com game recap. Machado's blast left the bat at 106.7 mph and drew a collective roar from the third-largest crowd in Petco Park history before Mitchell pulled it back.

Fernando Tatis Jr. provided San Diego's only offense with a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the third inning, answering Milwaukee's first run and briefly tying the game at 1-1. It was the Padres' final hit of the night.

The Brewers reclaimed the lead in the fifth when Mitchell tripled and scored on Jackson Chourio's RBI single, and added an insurance run on Sal Frelick's sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Walker Buehler, making his first postseason start since closing out the 2024 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers, pitched four innings and allowed two runs. The Padres' offense, which had been the best in baseball over the final two months of the regular season, managed just three hits and went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position in the elimination game.

For the series, the Padres went 4-for-23 with runners in scoring position and lost three of four games. All but one game was decided by a single run — the Padres won Game 3 by a 4-3 score on Tuesday to stave off elimination.

"The Padres, who featured the best offense in baseball down the stretch, saw it abandon them at the worst possible time for the third postseason in a row," Sports Illustrated reported. San Diego lost its 2025 wild-card round to the Chicago Cubs by the same 3-1 score.

The Brewers now advance to face the Dodgers in the NLCS beginning Sunday at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The Padres finish the season having reached the NLDS for the third time in five years but remain one of five MLB franchises never to win a World Series.