Brewers Beat Padres 3-2 in NLDS Game 1 as France's Ninth-Inning Drive Hits the Roof Cables

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night at American Family Field, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. William Contreras broke a 2-2 tie with a seventh-inning home run, and the game ended in dispute after Ty France’s ninth-inning drive hit a cable of the stadium’s closed roof and was caught, a call that stood on review. Milwaukee, which won an MLB-best 103 games and earned a bye through the Wild Card round, needed five relievers to finish the job.

How did the Brewers beat the Padres 3-2 in Game 1?

Milwaukee fell behind, tied the game with one swing and won it with another. San Diego scored twice in the second inning against Jacob Misiorowski, stringing together three straight singles for one run and adding a second on a fielder’s choice when first baseman Jake Bauers fumbled a bouncer and threw low to the plate, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Jackson Chourio erased the deficit in the third, hitting a two-run home run off Padres starter Robbie Ray, who left after 2 2/3 innings. The score stayed 2-2 until the seventh, when Contreras drove a two-out, full-count pitch from Adrian Morejon to right-center for the lead. Ray’s short start mattered because San Diego had swept the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card Series and arrived with its bullpen as its stated strength.

Why was Ty France’s ninth-inning drive ruled an out?

The out stood because the ball never hit the ground. With one out in the ninth and Trevor Megill protecting a one-run lead, France lifted a high drive to left field that struck a cable supporting the closed roof at American Family Field, one of the retractable-roof parks in our best MLB ballparks ranking. The ball deflected straight down into Chourio’s glove in fair territory.

Umpires called France out on the field, San Diego challenged, and replay upheld the call, FOX6 Milwaukee and USA Today both report. Balls that strike the roof structure at American Family Field are governed by the park’s ground rules, and because Chourio caught the deflection cleanly, the play was a legal catch rather than a dead ball. Jackson Merrill then lined out to right fielder Luis Lara to end the game, and a potential game-tying or go-ahead swing became the second out of the inning instead.

What record did Jackson Chourio set in Game 1?

Chourio now owns the Brewers’ career postseason home run record on his own. His third-inning homer was his fifth in the playoffs, breaking the tie with Orlando Arcia that he carried into the game, according to the Journal Sentinel.

The quality of contact matched the occasion: the home run left the bat at 113.3 mph and traveled 420 feet to left field, the second-hardest ball Chourio has hit in the Statcast era. It also continued a pattern for Milwaukee in this series format, where the Division Series round rewards the team that scores first after falling behind early, because best-of-five leaves little time to recover from a Game 1 loss at home.

How did Milwaukee’s bullpen survive five innings?

Five relievers covered the last five innings without allowing a run, though rarely comfortably. Misiorowski ground through four innings and 88 pitches, allowing two runs on four hits with six strikeouts, because San Diego fouled off 30 pitches to shorten his night. Antonio Senzatela and Abner Uribe each retired only one batter, and DL Hall escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh before walking two in the eighth.

Hall was credited with the win, and Megill did the heaviest lifting: he entered with runners at the corners and two outs in the eighth and struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. on three pitches, then finished the ninth for a four-out save. Aaron Ashby was the one clean outing of the group, retiring all five batters he faced across the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Why does this Game 1 win matter for the Brewers?

It protects the one advantage Milwaukee’s 103-win season bought: home field in a short series. The Brewers are the top seed in the National League, and losing Game 1 at home would have handed San Diego both the lead and the momentum before the series shifts west. Instead the Padres must win three of the next four, with at most two of those games at home.

There is also franchise history on both sides. Milwaukee and San Diego are two of the five MLB organizations that have never won a World Series, and neither appears on the list of most World Series wins: the Brewers’ only appearance came in 1982 and the Padres last reached the Fall Classic in 1998, according to USA Today. Saturday’s other completed Division Series opener saw Tampa Bay beat the Yankees 1-0 in the American League.

What happens next in the series?

Game 2 is Sunday afternoon at American Family Field, first pitch 3:00 p.m. CT, before the series moves to San Diego for Game 3 on Tuesday, October 6. A Milwaukee win Sunday would put the Padres one loss from elimination; a split sends the series to Petco Park level, with the pressure reversed.

San Diego’s problem to solve is length from its starters: Ray recorded eight outs in Game 1, and the Padres cannot ask their bullpen for six-plus innings every night of a five-game series. Milwaukee’s question is the opposite one, whether its own relievers can repeat a five-inning scoreless night if Misiorowski’s pitch count climbs early again.