Jake Cronenworth hit a tie-breaking homer in the fifth inning and Michael King registered a six-out save as the San Diego Padres staved off elimination with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
Cronenworth led off the bottom of the fifth by jumping on a first-pitch sweeper by JoJo Romero (0-1) and sending it over the wall to give the Padres a 3-2 advantage.
After Padres star closer Mason Miller went on the paternity list prior to the game, King was called on to protect a 4-3 lead two days after throwing 72 pitches as the Game 2 starter. The right-hander gave up one hit and walked two to record the save.
William Contreras went 3-for-4 with a walk and a homer and Christian Yelich snapped his 19-game postseason streak without an RBI for the Brewers. Yelich and Cooper Pratt each had two hits.
Game 4 of the best-of-five series is Wednesday night in San Diego.
Contreras and Brice Turang walked against King with one out in the ninth before Yelich hit a bullet that short-hopped into the glove of Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who touched second and threw to first for the game-ending double play.
The Brewers lost their 12th consecutive road playoff game.
Left-hander Yuki Matsui (1-0) was credited with the win after retiring three batters over the fifth and sixth innings.
In the bottom of the sixth, Bogaerts singled with two outs against right-hander Antonio Senzatela. Left-hander DL Hall entered and threw a wild pitch to move Bogaerts to second.
Pinch hitter Miguel Andujar hit a broken-bat bouncer to shortstop that went between the legs of a leaping Bogaerts. Shortstop Pratt seemed slightly distracted and his ensuing throw to first bounced in front of Jake Bauers and caromed away a few feet as Bogaerts came around to score.
In the seventh, Contreras stroked a two-out single off Bradgley Rodriguez and Turang followed with a single. Yelich then delivered an RBI single to bring the Brewers within 4-3, his first RBI since Game 7 of the 2018 NL Championship against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Garrett Mitchell then struck out to end the inning.
San Diego scored twice in the third against Brewers starter Dustin May, who allowed two runs, three hits, two walks and struck out three in three-plus innings.
Samad Taylor stroked a leadoff single, stole second and was sacrificed to third by Cronenworth. Taylor scored when Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a tapper to shortstop and was thrown out at first.
Jackson Merrill followed with a single and stole second before Manny Machado delivered a run-scoring single to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.
The Brewers got on the board in the fourth when Contreras smacked a leadoff homer to left off Nick Pivetta. It was Contreras’ second homer of the series.
Milwaukee started the fifth with back-to-back singles by Pratt and Sal Frelick. Joey Ortiz then laid down a bunt to move the runners up.
Jason Adam replaced Pivetta and induced Jackson Chourio to hit a fly ball to shallow left. Pratt beat Dustin Harris’ throw to knot the score at 2.
Pivetta gave up two runs and five hits over 4 1/3 innings. The right-hander struck out four and walked none.
