The San Diego Padres' dominant pitching and torrid winning streak pose a massive threat to the Milwaukee Brewers.
The San Diego Padres outscored the Chicago Cubs 12-1 in a pair of National League Wild Card games.
Playing at home gave the No. 4 seed a huge advantage, but they now have a ton of confidence heading to Milwaukee for Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday, Oct. 3.
San Diego made the Cubs look silly, and that's a team the Brewers know a thing or two about.
Now, it's a battle between two teams that are eyeing their first-ever World Series title, and one of those hopes will be destroyed in the 2026 NLDS.
Padres only allowed eight hits in two games
One of the craziest things about baseball is the fact that a team's season can end due to a bad two-game sample size. Despite everyone playing 162 games in the regular season, the dreaded Wild Card round got the best of Chicago this year.
The Milwaukee Brewers were able to skip the Wild Card round last year, and it worked out in their favor as they topped the Cubs in the NLDS, 3-2.
Here in 2026, Milwaukee once again skipped the Wild Card round, and they were able to see this Cubs offense look absolutely horrendous against the Padres pitching staff.
The question is, will the Brewers offense be a little rusty coming off the bye, or will they be able to win each of the first two games at American Family Field as they did a year ago?
San Diego is as hot as it gets
After dropping a game on Saturday, Sept. 5, the Padres fell to 74-68. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that record, but they knew, at that point, a division title was basically out of reach.
So what did the Padres do? Ensured their spot in the playoffs by ending the regular season with a 91-71 record. Somehow, this team managed to win 17 of its last 20 games, and that's not even including the two they just won in the postseason against the Cubs.
The Padres are fresh off a series where they recorded 21 hits in two games, and it's clear they have no intentions of slowing down.
This could absolutely be a wrong place, wrong time situation for the Brewers, but it's time for them to show the world exactly why they're baseball's No. 1 overall seed for the second straight season.
Taking down this Padres team won't be easy, but if the Brewers are able to do so, there's arguably no team they can't beat en route to a World Series title.
