MILWAUKEE - The Brewers didn’t need their closer for a routine ninth inning Saturday. They needed him for a stretch that lasted longer, felt tighter and came with Fernando Tatis Jr. standing in the box.
Trevor Megill handled it anyway.
With Milwaukee protecting a one-run lead in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the National League Division Series, Megill was asked to do something he almost never does: get more than three outs. He responded with four scoreless outs, working through the top of San Diego’s order to lock down a 3-2 win at American Family Field and collect the first postseason save of his career.
“There’s no relaxing,” Megill said. “We’re relaxing now when we get home and shower. But that’s part of the game in October, is you got to do some uncomfortable things and make it happen.”
The finish capped a bullpen effort that carried the Brewers from the middle innings to the end. After Jacob Misiorowski covered four innings in his start, Antonio Senzatela, Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, DL Hall and Megill combined to throw the final 15 outs without allowing a run. That relief corps gave Jackson Chourio’s game-tying homer and William Contreras’ seventh-inning go-ahead shot enough support to stand.
“Megill was masterful,” manager Pat Murphy said. “All five relievers did a heck of a job.”
Megill’s workload was unusual even by October standards. During the regular season, he pitched more than one inning only twice - once against the Padres on Aug. 12 and once against the Mets on Aug.
- His 1 1/3 innings Saturday matched his previous postseason high, set against the Mets in Game 2 of the 2024 NL Wild Card Series.
He gave up one hit and struck out two. The situation, though, was exactly the kind of thing Milwaukee had in mind once the traffic started building.
“I knew there would be a four-out, five-out save on the table today,” Megill said. “And with the traffic, it just kind of forced [manager Pat] Murphy’s hand there.”
When he stepped in to face Tatis, Megill kept his answer short.
“Get him out.”
Before Megill finished the job, Ashby had already delivered the longest outing of the night among Milwaukee’s relievers. He came in during the fifth inning with runners on first and third after Senzatela exited, got Jackson Merrill to fly out and then settled in for 1 2/3 hitless, scoreless innings. That matched his postseason career high for innings in what was his 11th October appearance.
Ashby said the job was simple: keep the game in front of him and pass it to the next arm. The situation wasn’t foreign, either.
“We trust every guy down there, we got each other’s backs,” Ashby said. “In the postseason, it’s going to be a lot of inherited runners.”
Hall also had to work out of a bases-loaded jam before handing the ball to Megill. The whole night fit the shape of a series that figures to be decided by bullpens on both sides. San Diego’s relievers led the Majors in FanGraphs WAR during the regular season, while Milwaukee’s group led the National League with a 3.40 ERA.
Even the ninth inning found a way to make things uneasy. Ty France lifted a high fly ball that hit an overhead wire and changed direction before Chourio caught it near the left-field line.
Megill said he had never seen anything like it in four years with the Brewers, and he didn’t know the ball was live until the home plate umpire explained it.
“Just was hoping he caught it,” Megill said.
Chourio did. Megill finished. And Milwaukee’s bullpen kept the Brewers in control of Game 1.
“Those guys were working their [butt] off to get through that game,” Misiorowski said. “It’s definitely what we’ve been doing this whole season.”
In Other News...
Brewers Hold On After Wild Ninth Inning Call Sparks Padres Fury
A bizarre ninth-inning moment at American Family Field became the defining flashpoint of Game 1 of the National League Division Series, when Ty France sent a fly ball high enough to strike a cable on the roof before Jackson Chourio made the catch for the Brewers. The umpires ruled it an out under the ballparks ground rules, deciding the ball had hit over fair territory, and the call immediately turned a tense postseason game into the kind of replay-worthy controversy that tends to linger long after the final pitch.
For Milwaukee, the ruling helped preserve a hard-fought win, but it also left the Padres simmering over how the final inning unfolded. Craig Stammen and Pat Murphy both addressed the play afterward, along with players involved, as the odd sequence became less about the mechanics of a ruling and more about the pressure-cooker reality of October baseball, where a single strange bounce can reshape a whole series opener. [Read more 🡒]
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Jacob Misiorowskis NLDS debut gave Brewers fans exactly the kind of electricity they have come to expect from the rookie right-hander, and then some. In Game 1 against the Padres, he reached a new velocity peak with a 104.8 mph pitch and kept the fastball coming, piling up 52 pitches at 100 mph or harder while working four innings and striking out six.
For Milwaukee, the appeal is obvious. Misiorowskis stuff can change a series in a hurry, and he left the opener having allowed two runs on four hits and a walk before the Brewers turned to the bullpen with the game still hanging in the balance. The only real question now is how that kind of effort shapes what comes next, because outings like that can be a weapon and a warning at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Willson Contreras Just Changed An Early Brewers Playoff Storyline
The Brewers opened their NL Division Series with a tight 3-2 win over the Padres, and the biggest swing came from a familiar face who had been at the center of a late-season flashpoint. Willson Contreras delivered the go-ahead solo homer in the seventh inning after Jackson Chourio had already dragged Milwaukee back into the game with a tying two-run shot earlier, giving the Brewers the kind of timely power they have been chasing as October pressure ramps up.
Contreras performance carries extra weight because manager Pat Murphy benched him late in the regular season over a lack of hustle, a decision that had left his role under the microscope going into the postseason. Instead of letting that become the headline, Contreras answered in the first game that mattered most, giving Milwaukee an early playoff storyline built around response, not resentment, even if the full impact of that turnaround is still unfolding. [Read more 🡒]