No Miller for Game 3, and the Bullpen Has to Figure It Out

Mason Miller is on paternity leave. That's the whole situation, in one sentence. San Diego's only All-Star, the closer who anchored this bullpen all season, is unavailable for an elimination game, and there is no clean answer waiting in the depth chart.

The fallback is Bradgley Rodriguez, who has been genuinely good — a 2.28 ERA across 80-plus appearances, with strikeout stuff that holds up in high-leverage spots. Adrian Morejon is there too, and he's had a strong year. But neither of them is a closer by design, and an elimination game has a way of exposing that distinction fast. The grounding question for manager Jayce Tingler is sequencing: who handles the seventh, who handles the eighth, and who you trust with a one-run lead in the ninth when the season is on the line.

There's also the Jeremiah Estrada wrinkle. He's been the most dominant arm in this bullpen all year and is currently on the 15-day IL, so he's not available either. San Diego is essentially running its third and fourth options in a game where the margin for error is zero.

My read is that Rodriguez gets the ninth if it's close. He's the most experienced option left standing, and his numbers back it up. But this is a thinner situation than the Padres would have drawn up, and everyone in that dugout knows it.