October 4, 2026 · By Marcus · 4 min read
The Milwaukee Brewers hit the fewest home runs in the National League this season. They needed two of them on Saturday night, and then they needed the roof.
Tied 2-2 with two outs in the seventh inning of NLDS Game 1, William Contreras lifted a 406-foot solo shot the other way to center field off Padres reliever Adrian Morejon. It gave Milwaukee a 3-2 lead that held up for a win over San Diego at American Family Field.
Contreras picks his moment
As the ball cleared the wall, Contreras turned toward the Milwaukee dugout to celebrate on his way to first base.
Earlier, 22-year-old Jackson Chourio had tied it with a two-run homer off Robbie Ray in the third. It was Chourio's fifth career postseason homer, a Brewers franchise record.
Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski lasted only four innings, throwing 88 pitches with six strikeouts and two runs allowed, but the bullpen posted five scoreless frames. D.L. Hall got the win after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, and Trevor Megill closed the ninth for the save.
The beam
Then came the wildest play of the postseason. One out in the ninth, Dustin Harris on first, Ty France launched a towering fly to left that looked like a go-ahead two-run homer. It scraped a beam on the retractable roof and dropped straight down onto the warning track, where Chourio caught it for the out.
Under the stadium's ground rules, a ball striking the roof in fair territory is live and can be caught for an out. The umpires confirmed the call, the Padres challenged fair versus foul, and the ruling stood. Jackson Merrill lined out to right to end it.
Game 1, in context
- Fresh vs. tested. Milwaukee sat out the wild-card round. San Diego swept the Cubs to get here.
- Still chasing one. Neither franchise has ever won the World Series.
- Bases loaded, nothing. San Diego loaded the bases in the seventh and stranded everyone.
- Game 2 is Sunday in Milwaukee.
The betting angle
Roof chaos is not a strategy. Strip out the beam and this was a coin-flip game between two elite bullpens, and Milwaukee's depth won the coin flip. The Brewers' formula is pitching volume: they can throw fresh high-leverage arms at you for five innings, and San Diego's power plays into exactly that. Trust the arms over the theatrics. If the Padres' price drifts on "bad luck" narratives, that is when the value flips to the team that keeps manufacturing late outs.