Padres-Brewers NLDS Preview: Can San Diego repeat August blueprint?
Credit: AP Photo
The San Diego Padres head to Milwaukee this weekend to start a best-of-five series against the No. 1 seed Brewers.
San Diego is coming off a dominating sweep of the Chicago Cubs earlier this week and hopes to carry that momentum on the road.
Game 1 will likely be the toughest of the series, with starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski on the mound. He finished with a 16-5 record, a 1.80 ERA in the regular season, and accumulated 252 strikeouts. San Diego has already seen how dominant he can be. They faced Misiorowski at the beginning of the season this year when he threw seven scoreless innings and allowed only four hits. The Padres should be looking to make him work and put together pesky at-bats to drive up his pitch count and get into Milwaukee’s bullpen.
Milwaukee has held the best regular-season record two years in a row. The Brewers entered last postseason having lost six consecutive postseason series before beating Chicago in the NLDS. That was their first in seven years. Milwaukee’s offense can be dangerous without relying on home runs, but it can stall when the Brewers fail to bring runners home.
The Brewers are not a power-hitting team, but they get on base at a high rate and feature one of the lowest swing rates in baseball. For the Padres, that means they need to work towards not allowing them to build innings through solid pitching and good infield defense.
San Diego has done it before by sweeping the Brewers earlier in the season at home. That series provides a blueprint on how they can beat them again. In that series, Milwaukee went 3-for-28 with runners in scoring position and gave up a lead in multiple games. For San Diego, it might be tough to stop Milwaukee from getting on base, but their strategy should revolve around not letting them build big innings.
Robbie Ray will start Game 1 for the Friars, followed by Michael King in Game 2 (lining him up for a potential Game 5).
The Friars are going with the same exact roster for the Division Series. Manager Craig Stammen must feel confident carrying only 11 pitchers. One caveat, however: Walker Buehler will miss the first game or two after being placed on the Paternity List. Randy Vasquez will replace him until Buehler is back in three days.
Our 2026 NLDS Roster: pic.twitter.com/PN1hSTwXL9
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) October 3, 2026
Can the Padres keep Milwaukee from stringing together baserunners?
They did it in August by holding Milwaukee to 3-for-28 with runners in scoring position. Repeating what they did earlier in the season would go a long way to controlling the series.
Can San Diego get close games into its bullpen?
If San Diego can keep games close enough to get into the later innings with a lead, their bullpen is their biggest advantage.
Milwaukee earned the No. 1 seed for a reason, but the Padres have recent evidence that their pitching and defense can disrupt Milwaukee’s offense. The challenge will be executing over a five-game postseason series.
A San Diego local, Bill brings his interest in the city’s sports to East Village Times. He looks beyond the final score to tell the stories of the people and moments that shape each game.