Manny Machado made one of the Padres’ biggest decisions of Game 4 in the National League Division Series, and by the end of the night, he was wishing he had handled it differently.
It happened in the bottom of the first inning, with Jackson Merrill on first base and one out. Facing Milwaukee Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser, Machado dropped down a bunt on the first pitch he saw. The play worked exactly as designed: Machado beat it out for a bunt single, then turned toward the home dugout and celebrated, trying to spark the crowd and the Padres in what looked like an early chance to seize control.
The move set San Diego up with two runners on and one out. Two batters later, after an Austin Hays walk, the Padres had the bases loaded with two outs for Xander Bogaerts. But they couldn’t cash it in.
Afterward, Machado didn’t hide his second thoughts.
“We were a hit away in that first inning,” Machado said to reporters in the clubhouse after the game. “Maybe I shouldn’t have bunted.
Maybe I should have swung and maybe hit a homer there. But just trying to get something going, and we just couldn’t get that big hit and they did.”
That bunt single, following a Merrill single, ended up accounting for 66.7% of the Padres’ hits in Game 4. Fernando Tatis Jr. later led off the bottom of the third with a solo home run to tie the game at one apiece, but that was it for San Diego’s offense.
From there, the Padres went ice-cold, finishing the night 0-for-21.
Machado nearly changed the story again in the bottom of the eighth. He thought he had launched a game-tying homer, only for Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell to run it down and take it away. That was as close as San Diego came to a comeback the rest of the way.
Machado still finished the series with strong numbers, going 4-for-13 (.308) with four walks and an OPS of .855. But the Padres’ lineup never found the timely hit it needed.
“You’re facing the best team in baseball,” Machado said after the game. “One of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball, if not the best.
You know, we had opportunities there and we just didn’t come up with the clutch hit. They did, and that’s just how the series turned around.”
Craig Stammen also singled out Machado for how he finished the season.
“The way Manny played this last month of baseball was pretty remarkable,” Stammen said. “That’s probably the best I’ve ever seen Manny Machado play, the way he was playing defense, running the bases, swinging the bat.
He was on another level. He was trying to carry us.”
At 34, Machado couldn’t drag the Padres into the next round, and now the club heads into another long offseason with plenty left to sort out.
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