San Diego has lost two one-run games and now faces elimination without its closer.
Mason Miller was placed on the postseason paternity list hours before first pitch. Dustin May starts for Milwaukee against Nick Pivetta.
How to watch
Brewers at Padres, NLDS Game 3
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 9:30 p.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. CT / 6:30 p.m. PT
Petco Park, San Diego
TV: FS1
Spanish: FOX Deportes
Streaming: FOX One
Radio: KWFN 97.3 and XEMO 860 in San Diego, WTMJ 620 in Milwaukee, ESPN Radio
National League games are on FOX and FS1 this round. American League games are on TBS and truTV.
FS1 is carried on YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Fubo, Sling and DirecTV Stream.
Lineups
Milwaukee: Jackson Chourio LF, Jake Bauers 1B, William Contreras C, Brice Turang 2B, Christian Yelich DH, Garrett Mitchell CF, Cooper Pratt SS, Sal Frelick RF, Joey Ortiz 3B.
San Diego: Fernando Tatis Jr. RF, Jackson Merrill CF, Manny Machado 3B, Ty France 1B, Ethan Salas C, Xander Bogaerts SS, Dustin Harris LF, Samad Taylor DH, Jake Cronenworth 2B.
Gavin Sheets was scratched with a neck injury and Samad Taylor takes the designated hitter spot.
San Diego is without Mason Miller
Miller was placed on the postseason paternity list Tuesday. Wandy Peralta replaces him on the roster. Miller can be away from the team for one to three days, and Peralta comes off when he returns.
Miller allowed Jackson Chourio's walk-off single with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning of Game 2, in his first appearance of the series.
Michael King is available out of the bullpen after starting Game 2.
The math
Teams with a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five have won the series 83 of 93 times. Teams that won the first two at home under the current format are 33 of 36.
The last team to come back from 0-2 was the 2017 Yankees, who lost the first two at Cleveland.
Milwaukee has its own streak. The Brewers have lost 11 straight postseason road games, the second-longest run in postseason history behind a 12-game slide by the Senators and Twins between 1925 and 1987. Their last road playoff win came in Game 3 of the 2018 NLCS against the Dodgers and Walker Buehler, who is now on the San Diego roster.
Dustin May
May has been hit by three line drives this season.
On April 4 with St. Louis, Colt Keith hit a 104.4 mph comebacker that struck him in the upper body. He stayed in the game. On July 2, Dominic Smith lined a 91.6 mph ball into his right ankle and he left with a contusion. On Aug. 26, four days after the trade to Milwaukee, A.J. Ewing hit a 106 mph ball off his shoulder blade on the first pitch of the game. He left after one pitch.
None of them broke a bone.
That is on top of two Tommy John surgeries, flexor tendon surgery, elbow surgery in 2022, ulnar neuritis in 2025, and emergency esophageal surgery in 2024 after a piece of lettuce caused a tear while he was eating.
His fastball averages 96.8 mph and he throws six pitches.
May has a 3.14 ERA in 16 career games against San Diego and a 1.23 ERA in three starts against them this season between St. Louis and Milwaukee. He went 1-2 with a 7.61 ERA over his final eight outings overall.
Nick Pivetta
Pivetta missed nearly five months with a flexor strain in his right elbow and has a 1.64 ERA in five starts since returning in September.
He threw 3 1/3 innings in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Cubs, allowing one run, in a game San Diego was trying to clinch with a fresh bullpen.
He did not face Milwaukee this season. His career ERA against the Brewers is 8.76, most of it from one outing as a Phillies rookie in 2017.
Jackson Chourio
Chourio is hitting .327 with five home runs, 15 RBIs and a 1.030 OPS in 14 career postseason games. The five homers are the most in Brewers postseason history.
He is 22.
How the series got here
Milwaukee won Game 1 3-2. William Contreras homered in the seventh, and Ty France's potential go-ahead drive in the ninth hit a cable on the American Family Field roof and was caught for an out.
Milwaukee won Game 2 4-3 on Chourio's two-run single with two outs in the ninth.
The series schedule
Game 1 — Milwaukee 3, San Diego 2
Game 2 — Milwaukee 4, San Diego 3
Game 3 — Tuesday, Oct. 6, 9:30 p.m. ET, San Diego
Game 4 — Wednesday, Oct. 7, 10 p.m. ET, San Diego, if necessary
Game 5 — Friday, Oct. 9, 4:30 p.m. ET, Milwaukee, if necessary
All on FS1. The winner plays in the National League Championship Series beginning Oct. 11.
Neither franchise has won a World Series.
Elsewhere Tuesday
Los Angeles beat Atlanta 3-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the other National League series. Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one run and four hits in his first start of the postseason. Kiké Hernández hit a two-run homer and Freddie Freeman followed with a solo shot off Chris Sale in the fourth, an inning after Mauricio Dubón robbed Freeman of a home run.
Game 4 is Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET in Atlanta.
The American League series resume Wednesday. Sean Newcomb starts Game 3 for the White Sox against Daniel Espino. Tampa Bay leads New York 2-0.