Padres' chances of Dodgers rematch just dropped after getting royally screwed vs. Brewers

The Los Angeles Dodgers took care of their own business Saturday, beating the Atlanta Braves, 5-3, to take a 1-0 lead in the NLDS.

Meanwhile, their biggest rival may have just had a potential win taken away by the architecture of a baseball stadium.

The San Diego Padres lost Game 1 of their NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-2, on Saturday night in one of the most absurd finishes imaginable. With a runner aboard and one out in the ninth, Ty France launched a towering drive toward deep left field that had a legitimate chance to become a go-ahead two-run homer. Instead, it hit a cable attached to the roof at American Family Field.

The ball changed direction, dropped into the glove of Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio and was ruled an out. After a replay review, the call stood. Milwaukee recorded one more out and walked away with a 1-0 series lead.

If Dodgers fans were hoping for another October showdown with San Diego, their chances just took a bizarre hit.

France absolutely crushed the ball, recording a 105.3 mph exit velocity with a 49-degree launch angle. Only 10 over-the-fence home runs during the Statcast era have had a launch angle that high.

Would it definitely have stayed fair? That's the frustrating part. Nobody can know because the cable intervened. Would it have cleared the fence? It certainly looked like it had a chance.

Instead, American Family Field's ground rules dictated that a ball hitting the roof, truss or cable above fair territory remains live. Because Chourio caught it, France was out. If the ball had struck the structure over foul territory, it would have been ruled dead.

The Padres watched a potential go-ahead postseason home run get redirected by something hanging from the ceiling. That's a tough way to fall behind in a best-of-five series.

It's particularly painful considering San Diego had already let opportunities slip away. The Padres took a 2-0 lead and forced Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski out after four innings and 88 pitches, only for Milwaukee to come back. William Contreras ultimately broke a 2-2 tie with a solo homer in the seventh.

Then the roof finished the job.

Dodgers-Padres NLCS matchup suddenly looks a little less likely after bizarre home run robbery

Obviously, nobody in Los Angeles should start planning for Milwaukee yet. The Dodgers still have to finish off Atlanta, and San Diego is hardly dead after one loss. The Padres can still steal Game 2 in Milwaukee before the series shifts back to Petco Park.

But the bracket created the possibility of another Dodgers-Padres postseason showdown if both NL West rivals reached the NLCS. Considering the recent history between the teams, that would instantly become one of the most anticipated series of October.

The Dodgers survived their last postseason meeting, rallying from a 2-1 series deficit to eliminate San Diego in five games during the 2024 NLDS. And the Padres haven't exactly disappeared from Los Angeles' orbit since then.

Now San Diego has to overcome Milwaukee — the team that finished with MLB's best regular-season record — while already trailing the series.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers couldn't have scripted their Saturday much better. Tarik Skubal gave them six strong innings, Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker supplied home runs and Los Angeles opened its postseason with a 5-3 victory over Atlanta.

The Dodgers are three wins away from the NLCS, while the Padres are suddenly three wins away from merely surviving the NLDS. And if San Diego ultimately falls short, Dodgers fans may look back at the strangest play of the postseason and realize that a cable hanging from the roof in Milwaukee helped prevent another chapter of the rivalry from being written.

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