In the eighth inning of Game 4 of the 2026 NLDS, Manny Machado crushed a ball at 106.7 mph exit velocity, projected to travel 406 feet — enough to clear the fence in 19 major-league ballparks. Petco Park is not one of them. Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell climbed the wall, hauled it in, and turned what would have been a game-tying home run into the final out of San Diego’s season.
The kicker: it was the third time that specific wall had taken a home run away from Machado in nine years.
Why the clip felt so familiar
Fox Sports analyst Ben Verlander was among the first to put the moment in context, posting a side-by-side comparison on social media: «This is WILD. Almost 10 years apart… Manny Machado robbed in EERILY SIMILAR fashion at Petco Park.»
The reference was to March 18, 2017, when Adam Jones — Machado’s Baltimore teammate at the time, but wearing a Team USA jersey at the World Baseball Classic — leaped over that same wall in the seventh inning of an elimination game against the Dominican Republic and took away an identical trajectory. The United States won that game 6-3 and went on to win the entire tournament, their first WBC title ever. Jones’s catch remains the defining image of that Classic.
Same batter. Same stadium. Same wall. Almost the same flight path. That’s what made the clip go viral. But the «almost ten years apart» framing left out a third chapter.
Three robberies, one wall: the full pattern
In May 2024, Reds outfielder Stuart Fairchild covered 94 feet, jumped that same wall, and robbed Machado of a three-run home run in the exact same corner of Petco Park’s center field. Mitchell’s catch in October 2026 made it three home runs stolen from the same batter, at the same stadium, at the same precise spot on the field, in less than a decade.
The career numbers frame the pattern: according to Sports Info Solutions data tracked through May 2024, Machado had been robbed of a home run nine times in his career — the second-highest total since SIS began tracking the stat in 2004, trailing only Chris Davis (ten). Three of those nine robberies happened at the same wall.
Mitchell wasn’t there by accident. Petco Park’s center field is one of the shallowest in the league, and Milwaukee had him positioned toward right-center with purpose. When asked how he pulled it off, he kept it simple:
«It kind of just happened. Instinctually, just do what I do. Make a good jump and see what happens.» — Garrett Mitchell, post-game press conference, as quoted by MLB.com, October 7, 2026.
Mitchell had also been the offensive turning point minutes earlier: his fifth-inning triple drove in the go-ahead run.
Another quiet October for San Diego
The Brewers closed out the series 3-1 and advance to the NLCS for the second straight year, where they’ll face the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Sunday in Milwaukee. For the Padres, it’s the third consecutive October in which their offense goes cold and their season ends at home.
The image they’re left with: Machado watching Mitchell come down with the ball at the same wall where Jones got him in 2017 and Fairchild got him in 2024.
- Exit velocity: 106.7 mph
- Projected distance: 406 feet
- Pitch: 99.6 mph sinker from Abner Uribe
And Petco Park is still Petco Park.
