Padres-Brewers Has Been The Best Of October Baseball

The single discordant note in the otherwise effervescent National League Divisional Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres so far was a brief shot of new Padres owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones watching Game 3. It was easy to imagine them, less than two months into the new gig, assuming that it would always be like this. All they know is winning two out of every three games, playing before sold-out houses, and learning cool inside-baseball phrases like “Goddammit, Merrill.” They’ll find out soon that this sort of thing is too good to last.

This series has not only been the best of the eight played so far in this postseason, but the best in years. Two indisputably accomplished teams, each with very different approaches and without the burdens of franchise legacy, have played taut and delightful baseball replete with stuff like speed, athletic defense, rapid-response scoring, bold tactical choices, and pitching being tested but only occasionally bested. It’s the stuff that makes watching your $3.9 billion investment action worth the bother of coming to the park. All that, and “Goddammit, Merrill” too.

The Padres extended the series at least a day with an incandescent 4-3 win Tuesday night, and they now trail the Brewers, the best team in the game during the regular season, 2-1 in a not-enough-games-no-matter-who-wins series. All three games have been decided by one run and hung precariously in the balance to the end. That was most thrilling in Game 2, when Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio’s walk-off hit in the gap scored two runs and stole the result from the Padres and their overpowering Padres closer Mason Miller. Because some ethereal things are happening here, Chourio opened Game 3 with a similar drive, only to have it seized before it landed by a diving San Diego center fielder Jackson Merrill, the name behind the curse.