For one swing, Petco Park sounded ready to erupt.
Manny Machado sent a ball screaming off his bat at 106.7 mph in the eighth inning, and the third-largest crowd in Petco Park history rose with it. The drive carried toward center field, where fans beyond the wall scrambled for a view, waiting for what felt like a game-tying shot. Instead, Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell climbed the wall and brought it back, snuffing out the moment and, effectively, San Diego’s season.
That catch fit the familiar October script for the Padres. They lost Game 4, 3-1, finishing with one run on three hits and falling by the same score as their season-ending loss to the Cubs in the 2025 wild-card round.
Fernando Tatis Jr. provided San Diego’s only real spark, launching a home run to tie the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third. It was the Padres’ final hit of the night.
The missed chances piled up from there. San Diego had the best offense in baseball down the stretch, but it disappeared at the worst possible time for the third straight postseason.
The Padres were 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position in Game 4 and left the bases loaded in the first inning. Across the series, they went just four for 23 with runners in scoring position.
“We had opportunities there. We didn't come up with the clutch hit,” Machado said.
The margin, as A.J. Preller put it, was razor-thin.
“From pitch one to the last pitch, it was a well-contested, super intense series,” Preller said. “Could have gone either way.”
He singled out Machado’s near homer as one of the moments that might have changed everything.
“I thought Manny’s ball was going out tonight,” he said.
The frustration carried a heavy sense of déjà vu. In 2024, the Padres took a 2-1 lead into Game 4 of the NLDS against the Dodgers, then watched the offense vanish.
They dropped the final two games 10-0 and closed the year with 24 straight scoreless innings. Over those last two games, they had no runs on nine hits and hit .145.
In 2025, the story was different but the ending felt the same. The Padres fell to the Cubs in three tight games at Wrigley Field, scoring five total runs in the series while hitting .189 with a .548 OPS and 20 strikeouts. They scored one run in each loss and went 3-for-26 with runners in scoring position.
“There's no excuse out there, but we were facing the best pitching in the big leagues, and it was a battle,” Tatis said. “It was a grind.”
Craig Stammen didn’t want to bundle the three Octobers together.
“I wouldn't jumble them all together. I think, when you get to the playoffs, you're going to face the best pitching staffs in the entire league,” he said.
Even so, the results tell the same story. The Padres finished 0-for-21 at the plate to end the season, the longest hitless drought by a National League team to close a postseason all-time.
Stammen said his club had good at-bats, but not the runs to show for them. And in October, that gap is everything.
“We've got to find a way to leave no doubt in these series,” he said.
For San Diego, it’s another winter defined by the same question: what if?
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