The plucky San Diego Padres assured us a four-game Wednesday.

With their 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, the Padres ensured all four Division Series will live on, Game 3s on tap in the American League and Game 4s pitting the Padres and Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves in the National League.

Parity? Seems like there’s more than a little of it going around. The Padres’ 4-3 win over Milwaukee is befitting for a series that’s featured three one-run games. Only right it doesn’t end in a three-game sweep that involved stadium roofs and paternity leaves.

What did we learn as the AL took a travel day and the NL staged a pair of Game 3s? Here’s four takeaways from the NLDS:

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the Most Valuable Dodger

So much attention was bestowed upon the $700 million signing of Shohei Ohtani that the fact Yoshinobu Yamamoto chose the Dodgers over similar offers from New York, San Francisco and elsewhere ducked relatively under the radar.

Now, the Dodgers are once again primed to win their third consecutive World Series title with the pair. And every time he takes the ball, Yamamoto builds the case he’s the greatest postseason pitcher of all-time.

Crazy? Well, consider that if the Dodgers threepeat, Yamamoto bailed them out every single time, digging them out of a 2024 NLDS hole by quieting San Diego, putting on one of the most heroic pitching shows ever in Games 6 and 7 in Toronto and then, Tuesday, when all the world was atwitter over 37-year-old Chris Sale available to start for Atlanta.

Somewhat startlingly, the Dodgers ace was relegated to the bottom of the marquee: “Also appearing – Yoshinobu Yamamoto.”

Now, after seven shutout innings and a career-best 10 strikeouts, Yamamoto should never earn such second billing again.

In three seasons, he has pitched in 11 postseason games. The Dodgers have won 10 of them, and he personally recorded the win in eight – no trivial matter given the four-and-out starts so endemic to the playoffs, a scourge that can blow out any bullpen.

No, Yama is the Dodgers’ rock and his three-year exploits – a 2.00 ERA, 58 strikeouts to 13 walks in 63 innings – are, era-adjusted, growing just as impressive as the Koufaxes and Pettittes and Bumgarners.

Much like a weekend in Las Vegas, the San Diego Padres have little to talk about after the first two games of the National League Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

However, the Friar Faithful have plenty to say about the two defeats. One game was decided on a roof-aided out that negated Ty France’s go-ahead home run. And the game’s best closer coughed up a one-run lead in the ninth inning.

Not all dome stadiums are equal

The ground rules for a ball hitting a domed stadium’s roof depend on the venue’s architectural design. In Milwaukee, a batted ball that hits the roof or cable extension in fair territory is live and in play. However, if the contact is in foul territory, it is a foul ball. 

Keep in mind that the rules are different at Tampa’s Tropicana Field. The highest catwalk rings are the facility’s roof, and balls that hit them are considered in play. But the lower catwalk rings are in fair territory and, if hit, are automatic home runs. 

For competitive fairness, Major League Baseball needs a universal rule for all balls that hit a dome stadium’s roof. The sport cannot have different outcomes for the same play. A home run in Tampa could be ruled an out in Milwaukee. 

League rules state balls bouncing off the wall cannot be caught for an out. Please explain the difference in these scenarios.

Adopting a universal rule would eliminate confusion for players and fans alike.

Was Craig Stammen greedy?

The Padres were leading 3-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. Manager Craig Stammen was six outs away from evening the series at a game apiece and heading home for Games 3 and 4. Usually, he chooses long-term bullpen management over extending a reliever’s appearance. 
In Game 2, he became greedy with his managerial decisions. 

Arguably, Mason Miller is baseball’s best closer. He recorded 38 saves with a 1.67 ERA, and regularly throws in the 100s. You could not ask for a better option to close out a potential Game 2 win. But Stammen wanted more from his closer: a two-inning outing. 

Yes, Miller had two multi-inning appearances this season: a 7-6 win over the Atlanta Braves on June 23rd and a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees on September 4th. Both outings were extra-inning affairs. 

A tale of two innings

On Sunday, Miller retired the Brewers’ No. 2, 3, and 4 hitters on 12 pitches. But the ninth inning was a different story: besides recording two outs, he walked three batters and gave up the game-winning hit by Jackson Chourio.

Of course, conspiracy theorists believe Miller was tipping his pitches in the ninth inning. Sorry folks, but that is a fallacy. Control issues were his problem. 

In the postgame press conference, Stammen admitted his closer was struggling with the strike zone (40 pitches thrown/21 for strikes) in the ninth inning. If Miller was tipping his pitches, adjusting his hand placement within the glove will resolve the issue. 

It is tough to second-guess yourself, but Stammen’s first managerial mistake was using Adrian Morejon for two innings in Game 1. Instead, he should have used Morejon and Miller as a power-arm tandem for the final two innings.

Stammen did not trust another reliever to pitch the eighth inning and chose his best to close out the game. 

Let’s not kid ourselves: the Padres’ bats struggled through the first two games of the series. The offense stalled, leaving 20 runners on base, and the lineup went 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position.

The Friars know their fate this evening: Win or go home.

Box Score

For the third time this NLDS, the Brewers and Padres fought a very close game from start to finish, but this time, Milwaukee was unable to come out on top, as the Padres escaped with a 4-3 victory to cut the series lead to 2-1 for the Crew.

Things started off with a bang, as Jackson Chourio lined a ball into the left-center gap, but Jackson Merrill got a good jump and made a nice sliding catch on the warning track, robbing him of extra bases. Jake Bauers and William Contreras followed with a strikeout and flyout, respectively, but not before getting Nick Pivetta’s pitch count up to 17.

In the home half of the inning, Contreras inexplicably challenged the first pitch out of Dustin May’s hand, a call that was upheld upon review as he cut Milwaukee’s ABS challenges in half right away. May had a solid inning, though, allowing a two-out walk to Manny Machado but nothing else.

Milwaukee got the first hit of the night as Christian Yelich lined a one-out single to center, but he was left there before May went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning with a pair of strikeouts.

After another nice grab by Merrill to rob Sal Frelick, Joey Ortiz had a one-out single in the third but was left stranded, and the Padres got the first leadoff baserunner of the night in the bottom of the frame, as Samad Taylor picked up San Diego’s first hit on a liner up the middle. He then stole second base, advanced on a bunt by Jake Cronenworth, and scored on a groundout by Fernando Tatis Jr. for a 1-0 lead.

Already in a hole, May allowed a single to Merrill, who stole second and scored on a single by Machado to extend the lead to 2-0 before Ty France flew out to end the inning.

Contreras got one of those runs back quickly in the fourth, slugging a leadoff homer over the wall in left to make it 2-1 before Pivetta set the next three down in order.

May returned for the bottom of the fourth to face Ethan Salas, who he walked on four pitches. He then threw another ball to Xander Bogaerts before Pat Murphy pulled the Pat Murphy special, pulling him mid at-bat. JoJo Romero entered and fell behind Bogaerts 3-0 but fought his way back to induce a forceout at second. He then struck out Dustin Harris and got Taylor to pop out, keeping the deficit at one.

Pivetta allowed back-to-back singles to Cooper Pratt and Frelick before Ortiz bunted both over to put runners in scoring position for the top of the order. Pivetta was lifted for Jason Adam, who got ahead of Chourio with a pair of down-and-away sliders before he hit a shallow fly ball to left-center. Surprisingly, Harris caught the ball instead of Merrill (who has the stronger arm) and Pratt made the decision to tag from third, easily beating the throw to tie it up at 2-2.

With two outs, Bauers drew a walk before Contreras singled on a ball that, had it got past Bogaerts at short, would have scored another. Instead, the bases were loaded for Brice Turang, who had to face the lefty Yuki Matsui, who got him to ground out to escape the jam and keep it tied.

That tie didn’t last very long.

Romero stayed in for the bottom of the fifth, and on the first pitch of the frame, he hung a sweeper that Cronenworth promptly put over the wall in right, giving San Diego a 3-2 lead.

Romero and Antonio Senzatela combined to set the next three down in order, sending this one to the sixth.

Yelich started things off with a four-pitch walk before Mitchell got ahead 2-0, but he then took three pitches in the zone to strike out. Pratt followed with a single before Frelick moved both runners up with a groundout to first, and Matsui made way for Bradgley Rodriguez, who got Ortiz into a full count before he flew out to right, ending the inning and once again allowing San Diego to escape the jam.

Senzatela set France and Salas down to begin the bottom of the inning before Bogaerts singled, forcing Murphy to bring in the lefty DL Hall. Miguel Andujar entered as a pinch-hitter for Harris and worked the count full, with a wild pitch by Hall allowing Bogaerts to move up to second. Andujar then hit a broken-bat grounder to short, and Pratt fielded it cleanly but was clearly impacted by the flying bat and Bogaerts’ jump to avoid the ball, as his throw was low and hit the lip of the grass in front of Bauers, allowing Bogaerts to score and extending the lead to 4-2. Jase Bowen replaced Andujar at first and ended the inning as he was caught stealing, but the damage was done and the Brewers had some ground to cover if they wanted to end the series.

After Rodriguez struck both Chourio and Bauers out with ease, the Brewers mounted a two-out rally, as Contreras, Turang (of the bloop variety), and Yelich hit three consecutive singles to get a run back. With the tying run at second and the go-ahead run at first, Mitchell was unable to come through, however, striking out to keep the score at 4-3.

Hall worked around a Cronenworth single in the seventh, keeping the deficit at one for the bottom-third of Milwaukee’s lineup, who would go up against Sunday’s starter, Michael King, on just one day of rest in the eighth.

King didn’t look like he had his best stuff, but he only allowed a two-out single to pinch-hitter David Hamilton, who was left there after Chourio grounded out to end the inning. Abner Uribe then made quick work of the 3-4-5 hitters, inducing three groundouts on seven pitches to send this one to the ninth.

After Bauers struck out, Contreras and Turang both drew walks to once again put the go-ahead run on, but Yelich hit into a game-ending 6-3 double play, ending this one just after midnight in Milwaukee.

It was a tough loss for the Brewers, as they out-hit San Diego 11-6 and out-walked them 4-2, but they left 11 runners on base in this one. Contreras led the offense with a homer, two singles, and a walk, while Pratt was the only other player with multiple hits, picking up two singles.

May was just fine to open things, and after Romero and Senzatela allowed runs in the fifth and sixth, the bullpen settled down to allow the offense an opportunity to make a come back.

We’ll be back here for a Game 4 on Wednesday night. Neither team has announced a starter yet, but it seems likely that we will see Robert Gasser for Milwaukee and Walker Buehler for San Diego. First pitch in that one is set for 9:08 p.m. CT. See you then.

SAN DIEGO — The Padres were one loss away from a vacation in Cancun, without their All-Star closer, and after blowing leads in both games in Milwaukee .

But on Tuesday night in Game 3, this time, they didn’t blink.

With Tom DeLonge of the band Blink 182 watching from behind home plate, the San Diego Padres held off the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 on Tuesday night at Petco Park, surviving a tense game to stave off elimination and trim Milwaukee’s lead in the National League Division Series to 2-1. 

Their reward? Another elimination game on Wednesday night.

At this point, they’ll take it.

San Diego struck first against former Dodgers’ pitcher Dustin May after Samad Taylor — inserted into the lineup when Gavin Sheets was scratched with a neck issue — singled and stole second.

Fernando Tatis Jr. brought him home with a groundout before Manny Machado punched a two-out RBI single into left for a 2-0 lead.

Nick Pivetta gave the Padres exactly what they needed early, but Milwaukee began its inevitable push in the fourth when William Contreras launched a solo homer to left, then took his time circling the bases and gestured between second and third as Petco Park serenaded him with boos.

The Brewers tied it in the next inning by stealing a run from underneath San Diego’s nose.

With Cooper Pratt at third, Jackson Chourio lifted a shallow fly to left. Pratt tagged anyway, challenging Dustin Harris’ arm, and scored when Harris’ throw arrived without enough mustard on it.

Unlike the hot dogs being devoured throughout the stadium by the sellout crowd of 47,708 at Petco Park.

For a Padres team that had watched Milwaukee steal both games at American Family Field, it felt ominously familiar for the Friars.

But reliever Yuki Matsui escaped a bases loaded jam and Jake Cronenworth put a stop to Milwaukee’s momentum by jumping on a JoJo Romero first-pitch sweeper in the bottom of the fifth for a leadoff homer that restored San Diego’s 3-2 lead.

The Padres added another run in appropriately chaotic fashion when former Yankee Miguel Andujar shattered his bat on a grounder to shortstop.

The broken lumber nearly found Xander Bogaerts, but he managed to avoid the splintered bat and the ball, while Pratt’s one-hopper to first wasn’t scooped cleanly by Brewers’ first baseman Jake Bauers and Bogaerts raced home for an insurance run. 

Milwaukee made it 4-3 on Christian Yelich’s two-out RBI single in the seventh, ensuring every remaining pitch would carry the weight of San Diego’s season.

And with Mason Miller unavailable after being placed on the Postseason Paternity List earlier Tuesday, the Padres reached for an unconventional fire extinguisher.

Michael King.

The Game 2 starter came roaring out of the bullpen to help finish what Pivetta and the Padres started, turning a starting pitcher into an emergency postseason weapon with San Diego’s season hanging in the balance.

Desperate? Absolutely.

October doesn’t award style points for bullpen management. It only asks whether you’re still playing tomorrow.

The Padres are.

What it means

San Diego finally punched back.

The Padres still trail the Brewers 2-1 and still have no margin for error, but Milwaukee missed its first opportunity to end this series.

Now Petco Park gets another October night Wednesday, with San Diego potentially choosing between Robbie Ray and veteran Walker Buehler for Game 4.

Turning point

Milwaukee had just embarrassed San Diego by scoring Pratt from third on Chourio’s shallow fly, tying the game and seemingly stealing the momentum again.

Cronenworth needed exactly one pitch to steal it back.

Did you see that?

There is no roof at Petco Park — and one Padres fan wanted Milwaukee to know it.

After Ty France’s potential go-ahead homer struck an overhead obstruction at American Family Field in Game 1, a fan arrived Tuesday with a sign delivering the perfect reminder:

“In San Diego there’s no roof to save you.”

Up next

The Padres and Brewers return to Petco Park Wednesday night for Game 4, with Milwaukee getting its second opportunity to clinch the series.

San Diego’s pitching plan remains the biggest question. Ray could return after starting Game 1, while Buehler gives the Padres another option, or they could go with an opener.

Whatever the choice, the assignment is refreshingly uncomplicated now.

Win Wednesday and send this thing back to Milwaukee.

Lose, and start packing for Cancun.

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The Phillies are going to have to dig a little deeper in their managerial search.

World Series-winning Red Sox manager Alex Cora informed the Phillies that he plans to sit out the 2027 season, meaning he will not be going to Philadelphia, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed.

Heyman reported that Cora’s decision mostly came down to family reasons, as he’s been enjoying time with them. He is also getting married in November.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first reported the news of Cora’s decision on Tuesday night.

Heyman reported earlier this week that Cora — who is owed over $7 million by the Red Sox next year — could decide to sit out 2027.

It’s not the first time Cora has turned down the Phillies and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski this year. After the Phillies fired Rob Thomson after a sluggish start, the team reached out to Cora — who had recently been canned by the Red Sox. Dombrowski and Cora had worked together in Boston for the team’s last World Series championship in 2018.

“I accepted to be a full-time dad,” Cora told The Post in late April.

The Phillies instead made Don Mattingly the interim manager. The Yankees great went 79-55 as the Phillies squeaked into the postseason as the final National League wild-card entrant. They fell in three games to the rival Braves in the first round.

Though it was previously reported that Mattingly was expected to be dismissed, Heyman reported Wednesday that it is possible he does return to the Philadelphia dugout.

Cora finished with a 620-541 record with the Red Sox and made the playoffs three times.

Boston went 10-17 to start 2026 before he and much of his coaching staff were axed.

Chad Tracy took over in an interim capacity — later getting promoted to full-time skipper with a three-year contract.

The Red Sox made the playoffs but were swept handily in the wild-card round by the Yankees.

ATLANTA –– Seemingly every October, the same question arises.

Over the years, Kiké Hernández has supplied a wide range of answers.

Sometimes, it’s a simple joke: “I like Halloween,” he quipped two years ago.

Others, it’s a more introspective –– albeit, self-deprecating –– response: “My brain’s all over the place, man,” he said before Game 7 of last year’s World Series. “I got really bad ADHD.”

Usually, however, the explanation boils down to one simple factor, having to do with focus and fearlessness in the highest-pressure of situations.

Why is he, as a relatively mediocre regular-season hitter over his 13-year career, such a consistent force in the playoffs?

“It’s almost like when you’re in school and you have a project for two months, and then you leave it for the last day,” he said this time a year ago. “That’s kind of a similar way [it works in the playoffs]. I’m able to stay in the moment and, like, stay really, really focused.”

In Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday night, that mentality paid off with more postseason heroics yet again.

As usual, the Dodgers deployed Hernández like an ace up their sleeve, inserting him into the starting lineup to face star Braves pitcher Chris Sale with the best-of-five series knotted at one game apiece.

And, as usual, Hernández delivered, producing the decisive swing on a two-run homer in the fourth inning of the Dodgers’ 3-1 win at Truist Park.

“It’s something I take a lot of pride in, but don’t really think about it too much,” Hernández said.  “It’s something that, once I’m done playing, I’m going to look back on and be really proud of, because the way my career has gone, in terms of finding myself each and every year in October.”

Indeed, Hernández has a way of looking –– and getting –– lost in the regular season, especially in recent years while being relegated to a part-time spot on the Dodgers’ bench.

This season, the 35-year-old appeared in just 41 regular season games, getting less than 100 total plate appearances because of elbow and oblique injuries, but also a loaded Dodgers roster that leaves at-bats at a premium for fringe players like him.

It didn’t help that he hit only .222, lowering his career regular-season average to .235 to go along with a .706 OPS (a shade under league-average production when measured by OPS+).

Entering this October, he had no clear pathway to regular playing time, either, with the Dodgers boasting entrenched regulars at all nine positions.

No matter.

Since rejoining the Dodgers as a trade deadline acquisition in 2023, the utilityman has come to accept that “my role is not to necessarily be in there all year or every day.” He knew that, at some point, he would be summoned to provide a boost for the two-time defending champions.

“It would have been nice to get a little bit of a warm-up before [having to face] Chris Sale,” he joked. “But I’m just glad I’m here talking about something positive and not something negative.”

Rare is it, of course, that Hernández doesn’t make a positive impact when called upon.

At this point, he has turned majestic playoff performances into an almost annual tradition.

There was his three-homer outburst in the Dodgers’ pennant-clinching victory in Game 5 of the 2017 NL Championship Series. His game-tying, pinch-hit blast in Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS. His go-ahead shot early in a winner-take-all Game 5 triumph over the Padres in the 2024 NLDS. His season-saving double-play in left field in Game 6 of last year’s Fall Classic.

And that doesn’t even include what he did for the Boston Red Sox during their run to the ALCS in 2021, when he batted .408 with five home runs during his one postseason campaign away from Los Angeles.

“He’s a big-time player,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s always prepared. He loves moments like this. He has a way to lock in.”

Thus, in the run-up to a pivotal Game 3 on Tuesday night, and in the face of a daunting task against the Braves’ left-handed ace in Sale, Roberts turned to Hernández to give the offense some “added intensity, urgency,” starting him at third base in place of the left-handed-hitting Max Muncy.

“We needed a little bit of that Kiké dust,” Roberts said.

And, surprise, surprise — he came through once again.

After the Dodgers squandered several early chances against Sale, Hernández stepped up with one on and one out in the fourth inning, hoping to simply “grind out the at-bat” and keep stressing Sale’s climbing pitch count.

But when the former Cy Young Award winner tried to sneak back-to-back changeups by him, Hernández was ready for it.

“He doubled up on the changeup,” Hernández said. “My eyes recognized it.”

With a vicious swing that sent the ball screaming off his bat at 106.8 mph, Hernández launched a 406-foot drive deep into the left-field seats, breaking open what had been a scoreless pitchers’ duel previously.

The scene that followed was triumphantly familiar, with Hernández pounding his chest and screaming his lungs out as his Dodgers teammates erupted in the dugout down the third-base line.

The 2-0 lead would last, as well, thanks to seven dominant innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto –– who, while facing a jam in the fifth, also got a quick pep talk from Hernández instilling him with confidence and featuring a “dirty word,” the pitcher joked –– that propelled the Dodgers to a two-games-to-one series lead. 

“He converts himself into this kind of monster when it comes to the playoffs, and when it matters the most,” said teammate Miguel Rojas, another veteran role player who has drawn so much inspiration from Hernández’s repeated heroics that he texted him last week to tell him “how much I appreciate what he taught me without even telling me how to do it.”

“He wants the situation. He wants the moment. He wants to be the guy,” Rojas added. “His value is way higher than what people think that he can be. He’s a great asset for us.”

The home run marked the 17th of Hernández’s postseason career, tied for 18th-most all-time along with the likes of Aaron Judge, David Ortiz and Jim Thome. In the playoffs, he now has a .272 average and .831 OPS in 105 career games (93 of which have come with the Dodgers, most in the franchise’s illustrious history).

“I wish there was a recipe for that so we can all take it from him,” first baseman Freddie Freeman, who went deep himself later in Tuesday’s fourth inning, joked afterward. “It’s incredible … He’s ready to go at all times.”

Hernández himself, yet again, still lacked a definitive answer for why his play in the postseason seems to inevitably elevate, outside of ample October experience and a slow heartbeat in such moments.

The only thing he did know for sure: “I was going to be ready,” he said, “whenever Doc put my name in the lineup.”

Once again, it might have swung the direction of the Dodgers’ season.

“Having him in a lineup in the postseason,” Roberts said, “just adds that extra sort of urgency, that kind of grit that you need.”