The San Diego Padres took care of business in the wild card round, finishing off a sweep of the Chicago Cubs with their 4-1 win in Game 2 at Petco Park on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
Fernando Tatis Jr.
and Manny Machado powered the Padres to a blowout win in Game 1 on Tuesday. Their bats cooled off in Game 2 (they went 1-for-8 collectively), but the Padres found offense elsewhere and the bullpen put in a strong performance to finish off the sweep.Now comes October, in a literal sense.
Here's everything you need to know about the Padres' NLDS opponent, the Milwaukee Brewers:
Who will the Padres play in the NLDS?
The path for San Diego only gets tougher from this point on as it's now set for a meeting with Milwaukee, the National League's No. 1 seed, in a best-of-five NLDS series. The Brewers
finished the regular season with the best record in baseball – 103-59 – for the second consecutive year, surpassing 100 wins for the first time in franchise history.
Jacob Misiorowski will almost certainly get the ball in Game 1. The 24-year-old Cy Young front-runner represents the toughest test for the Padres' scorching bats. His 252 strikeouts this season led the big leagues, and he carries a ridiculous 0.80 WHIP into the postseason. Logan Henderson is lined up behind him for Game 2, but the Brewers rotation gets murkier from there. Dustin May slumped down the final stretch, and Kyle Harrison struggled with a dip in his velocity, but he rebounded nicely in his final three starts.
The Brewers won't slug their way to wins, but their lineup thrives on stringing hits together and sustaining rallies. Whether that can be a winning strategy in the postseason remains to be seen, but it was enough to get them in this position in the first place.
Stream NLDS games on Fubo
Padres vs Brewers NLDS schedule
The National League Division Series between the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers starts with Game 1 on Saturday, Oct. 3. Here's the full schedule for the best-of-five series. All times ET.
NOTE: All NLDS games will air on Fox or FS1 and can be streamed on Fubo.
- Game 1, Saturday, Oct. 3: Padres at Brewers, 8:30 p.m.
- Game 2, Sunday, Oct. 4: Padres at Brewers, Sunday, 4 p.m.
- Game 3, Tuesday, Oct. 6: Brewers at Padres, Time TBD
- Game 4, Wednesday, Oct. 7: Brewers at Padres, Time TBD (if necessary)
- Game 5, Friday, Oct 9: Padres at Brewers, Time TBD (if necessary)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who do the Padres play next in MLB playoffs? Why San Diego faces ultimate test in NLDS
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