SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres may be catching waves at the beach in their spare time, some of the new home-made pearls in Old Town and the views on the floor are mirrored, but they’re not rustic, and they’re certainly not stupid.
They know what’s up.
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They know they trail the Milwaukee Brewers 2 games to 0 in the National League’s best-of-five division series, and the odds are heavily stacked against them. Since 1969, only ten of 93 teams (11%) have lost their first two games and come back to win a best-of-five series. Not only do the Padres have to win three games in a row, starting Tuesday, Oct. 6. at Petco Park (9:30 p.m. ET, FS1), but they will be doing so against the same team that has won more games than any team in baseball this year.
The Brewers have played 103 games this season, including seven in a row, and 17 of their last 20. They haven’t lost three games in a row since being swept by the same Padres in August.
Are you saying there is a chance?
That’s why the Padres don’t want to cower in fear.
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Therefore they will not be diminished.
This is why they don’t want to go back down.
and that is why they still believe.
They don’t need list material to hype them up, they’re practically laughing at Hall of Famer David Ortiz mocking them on TV saying they’re done.
Maybe, the Padres say, Big Papi forgot he was on the Boston Red Sox team in 2004 that came back from a 3-0 deficit to the New York Yankees when everyone said it was done and won the ALCS.
Perhaps people forget that the San Diego Padres went 2-games-to-0 in the best-of-five NLCS in 1984, losing the first two games to Chicago, and going on to win the National League pennant.
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Please, it’s not as amazing a comeback as if two years ago they lost 121 games and made the playoffs, as some of the teams on the south side of Chicago know.
“Listen, man, it’s a crazy game,” Padres veteran third baseman Manny Machado said. “A lot of crazy things could happen, especially at this time of year … This happened before, in ’84
“It’s a game, right? He plays. Anything is possible in this game. You’ve just got to go out there and compete on the field. This group has done it all year and we’re going to continue to do it. I believe in the group that we have there. They’re a tough group that loves to fight, loves to compete.
“We’re going to go until we can’t anymore.”
While no one shot outside of the 619 area code for the Padres, few gave them much of a chance to be in first place. They were upset with a 50-53 record in midsummer with a 7.4% chance of making the season, according to FanGraphs. Their rotation was the beginning of Michael King, tape, glasses, and various lifters each week. They were fighting for their lives until the last week of the season just to qualify for the season.
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“Fuel, we knew we had the type of group,” Machado said. “We know that we played the kind of baseball that wasn’t great, but we were better than that. The sound outside: “We’re not going to do it. You are not going to do this. Sucking padres.” … The whole year was from everyone.
“We knew it was all fake and not reality. The group just took it to heart and ran with it and got better. We did it. We went up and here we are today. There’s nothing else.”
The Padres will turn to veteran Nick Pivetta, whose season looked set to go down in mid-April with a sprained right elbow, but he will be back in August and will make his sixth start Tuesday to save his season. He didn’t go longer than five innings and only 3 1/3 innings in his start against the Chicago Cubs, but he relished the opportunity.
“I think if you look back, when I was grinding my rehab process and I was wondering if I could pitch again this year,” said Pivetta, “I look forward to these moments. I’m very grateful to be able to be there this fall, to do this, to start it…
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“I will never shy away from a moment or shy away from what’s going on. Like I said, I’m just grateful to be in these moments and try to help us accomplish the goal. To be able to be in these things is very special to me.”
The Padres could use bad starters to give their bullpen a breather. They had a day off on Monday, but they were still burdened with a heavy workload. He used reliever Adrian Morjeon, perhaps the best left-hander in the game, who in the seventh inning of Game 1 pulled out the game-winner of Guillem Contreras. Mason Miller, perhaps the best closer in the business, who only hit a two-out, two-out, two-out, two-out, two-out, two-out inning in Game 2 in Alciati Chourio. Miller was left to throw a season-high 40 pitches.
“I’ll never second guess myself,” Stammen said. “That’s something for everyone to do.”
More: The Brewers may be World Series favorites. Mason Miller’s lashes show why Feeling
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The rookie manager was second-guessed most of the time when he was competing for his life, so it’s nothing new. In addition, every time the Padres were counted out and out, they fought back, which defined the character of the Padres.
“We’ve been tough all year,” Stammen said. “We’ve had our backs against the wall a few times. Every player has had their backs against the wall. It’s just another day for us in Padres Land.
“But it’s an exciting challenge.”
So, fatigue or not, the Padres won’t be changing their game plan right now using their relievers. Still more innings will count for Morejon. They were still looking for Miller to last more than an inning. The ninth of October. They will have to rest all winter.
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And, perhaps for the last time on Tuesday, the Padres will try to silence critics who believe their deficit is impossible to overcome and beat the mighty Brewers for a trip to the NLCS.
“Machado said, “it’s not an ideal system”, but these boys, this group, we’ve been at the wall all year. A lot of people didn’t think we’d start in this state, and here we are. We’ve won a lot in the group, and we’ve learned a lot in the season.
“Believing that the group that could overcome this are the 20 guys in there who have fought all year to be in this place.”
The Padres will play hard. They play great. After that they will have a packed house at Petco Park.
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For what have they got to lose?
“Here we are again with our backs to the wall,” Machado said. “We pulled it off once, and we can do it again.
“And we’re going to do it again.”
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This article first appeared in USA TODAY: The Padres believe a comeback is still possible despite a 2-0 deficit vs. the Brewers