Padres have given Brewers the most trouble of any team over the last 3 years. Now they meet in NLDS

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The major league-best Milwaukee Brewers’ first postseason test comes against the one team that’s had their number lately.

Milwaukee owns the best regular-season record (293-193) in the majors during manager Pat Murphy's three-year tenure but is only 6-13 against San Diego, including a 2-4 mark this year. The only other teams to have winning records against Milwaukee over the last three seasons are San Francisco (11-9) and the New York Yankees (5-4), according to Sportradar.

San Diego has won 20 of its last 23 games overall and Milwaukee has won 15 of 18 heading into a best-of-five NL Division Series that starts Saturday night.

“They’re playing so well and they’re super talented, a super talented, confident team right now with, we all know, the best bullpen in baseball, with some real megastars in the lineup,” Murphy said. “And they’re rolling. But that’s what you’re going to face at this time of year.”

Game 1 has Cy Young Award front-runner Jacob Misiorowski (16-5, 1.80 ERA) starting for the Brewers and 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray (13-8, 3.59) pitching for San Diego. Game 2 features a likely matchup of San Diego’s Michael King (12-10, 3.21) and Milwaukee's Logan Henderson (11-3, 2.47).

“You have to bring your ‘A’ game, because they’re just a team that’s a headache,” Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “It’s not like a swing-and-miss (where) they’re going for the home run or nothing. They play good defense, run the bases, a lot of guys with speed.”

San Diego was under .500 in late July before closing the season on a tear and then sweeping the Chicago Cubs in a Wild Card Series.

This series features playoff perennials chasing their first World Series title.

Milwaukee has reached the postseason eight of the last nine years and made its lone World Series appearance in 1982. San Diego is making its fourth straight playoff appearance but has reached the World Series just twice, in 1984 and 1998.

The Brewers went 103-59 to earn home-field advantage throughout the postseason for a second straight year. The Los Angeles Dodgers swept Milwaukee in last year’s NL Championship Series.

“When I think back to last year, I think there was an element of maybe a little bit of lack of belief that we could do it, maybe a little too much doubt,” Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers sad. “And I think going into this postseason there’s a different feeling around the team. I think there’s been a concerted effort to make sure that everybody in the room knows what we’re capable of, and that it doesn’t require anybody to do something that they’re not able to do.”

The series could have as many as five starting position players under the age of 24: San Diego’s Ethan Salas (20) and Jackson Merrill (23) and Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio (22), Cooper Pratt (22) and Luis Lara (21). Salas became the youngest catcher to play a postseason game when he started Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.

Milwaukee’s top two starting pitchers — Misiorowski and Henderson — are both 24. San Diego’s bullpen includes 22-year-old Bradgley Rodriguez.

Misiorowski went 2-1 with a 1.50 ERA in three postseason relief appearances last year. This will be his first playoff start.

In his lone career appearance against the Padres, Misiorowski struck out 10 and allowed four hits and no walks in seven shutout innings on May 13. Visiting San Diego won 3-1 after Gavin Sheets hit a three-run homer off Abner Uribe with two outs in the ninth inning.

Ray, 35, is 0-3 with a 7.43 ERA in six career postseason appearances. The Padres acquired him from San Francisco at the trade deadline.

“I think he’s going to do well against this lineup,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “As far as how far he goes or how long, he’ll determine a lot of that, how well he pitches. And we know with Robbie, he can be erratic at times. If he’s throwing strikes, I feel good about Robbie being in there.”

San Diego gave Murphy his first MLB managerial opportunity. He went 42-54 as the Padres’ interim manager in 2015 after the firing of Bud Black.

Rather than keeping Murphy beyond that season, Padres general manager A.J. Preller hired Andy Green.

“I wouldn’t have retained me then either, you know what I mean?” Murphy said. “I wasn’t ready to be the major league manager he needed.”

Getting an early lead could be imperative because of the effectiveness of both bullpens.

San Diego has arguably the game’s best reliever in Mason Miller, who posted a 1.67 ERA while striking out 47.4% of the hitters he faced and limiting opponents to a .152 batting average. Milwaukee has Uribe and Trevor Megill, each of whom limited batters to averages under .200.

Murphy believes Brewers third baseman/shortstop Joey Ortiz will be ready for the start of the series after dealing with knee and abdominal issues over the last week. Ortiz didn’t play in Milwaukee’s last two regular-season games.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Robbie Ray throws to the plate during the first inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

San Diego Padres Xander Bogaerts reacts after reaching on a double against the Chicago Cubs in the fourth inning of Game 2 of the National League Wild Card baseball playoff series Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell (5) shakes hands with manager Pat Murphy, left, after a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was running in Israel’s upcoming election is withdrawing his candidacy following comments about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage is available here.

The FlyDubai captain told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save everyone on board, after he was stabbed by his co-pilot and the aircraft plunged into a steep descent.

“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Capt. Smit Machchhar said from a hospital in Abu Dhabi. “I was fighting for my life. At one point I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”

Machchhar was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said.

The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with 182 people on board, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

The first repatriation flight left the UAE shortly before 11 p.m. and landed in Tel Aviv just after 1 a.m., according to the Ben Gurion International Airport website.

— More coverage on the attempt to crash the plane is available here.

In the Strait of Hormuz, a tanker was struck by an “unknown projectile” while transiting outbound through the waterway, the British military said Friday, adding that the attack caused a “small fire and blackout onboard.” There were no reported casualties, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center (UKMTO) said. The fire was extinguished and the tanker continued its transit.

UKMTO did not identify the tanker and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Four tankers have recently been hit by projectiles in the critical waterway, bringing the total to five with Friday’s incident, UKMTO said.

Overall ship traffic remains below prewar levels in the Strait of Hormuz, as do shipments of energy products, even though Iran has lost its near-complete chokehold over the crucial waterway thanks to the U.S. Navy's efforts to shepherd oil tankers through the strait. That, along with various pipelines, has allowed Gulf countries to restore oil exports to nearly prewar levels.

Three Israeli strikes in Gaza City and central Gaza killed three people and wounded at least one other on Friday, according to health officials at Gaza’s hospitals.

Two strikes in Gaza City killed one person each, while another strike in central Gaza killed a third, officials said.

Israel’s military acknowledged carrying out the strikes, saying that it was hitting militants in those areas, without elaborating.

In Yemen, intense fighting engulfed a residential area in Taiz City as clashes between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces raised concerns over a worsening humanitarian situation.

The World Food Program warned that renewed fighting in Yemen is worsening an already dire humanitarian situation in a country suffering from severe hunger.

WFP director Matthew Hollingworth said that almost three out of four households are unable to meet their basic food needs.

Shelling Friday by the Houthis on the residential neighborhood of Wadi al-Qadi in Taiz City injured several people, according to an Associated Press reporter in the city.

Separately, Saudi Arabia said Friday that it intercepted three ballistic missiles, launched by the Houthis, over the city of Khamis Mushait. The statement, by Saudi spokesman Gen. Turki al-Maliki, did not specify when the attacks occurred or report any immediate damage. A fourth projectile, also blamed on Houthi rebels, fell on a school in the city of Najran, causing material damage, Saudi Civil Defense said. No injuries have been reported.

In Israel, the chairman of the left-wing Balad party said he would withdraw from Israel’s upcoming election after the country’s Supreme Court president said a majority of justices were prepared to uphold his disqualification.

Sami Abou Shehadeh’s candidacy was challenged over an editorial he wrote in the newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The article did not condemn Hamas and argued that it was surprising violence hadn’t erupted earlier given conditions in Gaza.

In a subsequent article, Abou Shehadeh, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, called Hamas’ attack both unacceptable and a crime. He said he hadn’t known the scale of the violence when he wrote the first article.

The court weighed whether his remarks violated an Israeli law barring candidates who reject Israel’s existence, incite racism or support armed struggle against Israel. His lawyers said that barring him would reinterpret the law and create a new threshold.

About 20% of Israel's citizens are of Palestinian descent.

Israeli soldiers have barred Palestinian farmers and activists from harvesting olives in the northern West Bank, according to video footage obtained by The Associated Press.

The footage showed soldiers firing shots in the air and tear gas toward the Palestinian farmers and activists, while settlers were also seen in the area.

Israel's military said troops were deployed following reports of a confrontation, which was dispersed. It added that a security official at the scene fired shots into the air earlier, without elaborating. The military said no one was injured.

The olive harvest season in the West Bank is usually marred by tensions between Palestinian farmers and settlers. Israel has imposed new rules this year, prohibiting Palestinians from harvesting in what’s known as Area C, which is under Israeli security control and encompasses the majority of the territory’s agricultural lands.

An earlier version of this story mistakenly said that a fourth projectile reported by Saudi Arabia Friday was not attributed to anyone in particular; it was blamed on Houthi rebels.

This screengrab from Narendra Modi YouTube Channel shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with FlyDubai pilot Capt. Smit Machchhar on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Narendra Modi YouTube Channel via AP )