Brewers Playoff Run Validates Padres Impressive Season

The Milwaukee Brewers just eliminated the powerful Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, and they’re redefining baseball’s winning formula in the process. The San Diego Padres remain the only team that has actually beaten the Brewers in the postseason, which definitely represents a starting point going forward. 

The most direct way to look at this is that it’s a validation of San Diego’s season and the impressive second-half run that got them to the playoffs. The Padres didn’t mess around once they got to the playoffs, either, as they quickly disposed of the Chicago Cubs with two wins in the Wild Card round. 

The Padres also came agonizingly close to beating the Brewers in the NLDS, and there are many experts who feel this series has been the best one in the playoffs so far. It featured two teams that were evenly matched and play the same way, and if a few clutch plays had gone San Diego’s way, they might easily be where Milwaukee is now. 

Meanwhile, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what happened to the Dodgers in this series. They were an absolute wagon during the season, and the normal Dodgers formula is to simply step up and do more of the same with some exceptional performances added in at clutch moments. 

Instead, it became obvious right away that the Brewers were a much better team than LA. Milwaukee struggled to put away the Padres, but disposing of the Dodgers felt like a perfunctory exercise by the end of the series. 

What’s even more remarkable about this is that Milwaukee never faced the Padres’ best version of themselves. The two starters San Diego acquired at the deadline, Casey Mize and Robbie Ray, both failed miserably, and the Padres had a ragtag rotation for most of the season. 

So what will it take to get the Padres over the top given all this?  Fixing the rotation will be the top priority, especially given the uncertainties surrounding nearly every member of the staff. 

The Padres also need to get younger and more athletic, but that’s a much tougher fix. San Diego relied on some problematic veterans who nonetheless came through with big performances in the clutch, and while they had value this year, not all of them make sense going forward. 

These fixes will come from the new ownership group, one way or another. We still don’t know what “all in” means to Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, but we do know the Padres are the only team in baseball that’s been able to extend the Brewers this season.