DPR: Freddy Fermín delivers for the Padres

Monday was our last light day of the 2025 baseball season. Only three games were played, and they included none of the at-risk teams. But, hey, the Padres did clinch a spot in the playoffs with a 5-4 extra-inning win — Freddy Fermin knocked in the zombie runner in the 11th to put the game away.

The Padres probably don’t have enough left to catch the Dodgers and take the National League West, but it doesn’t matter all that much— the NL West winner will almost certainly not get the bye anyway. So the only thing that’s at stake is which team will play the Cubs on the road and which team will play the Mets/Reds/Diamondbacks survivor at home. On paper, yeah, you’d rather play one of those three teams than the Cubbies at the friendly confines. But on the field, baseball is so unpredictable that there’s no telling which team will provide the toughest matchup.

Anyway, that makes five National League teams locked in.

There is only one American League team locked in.

The next six days should be a lot of fun.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve never been FULLY satisfied after a stolen victory — you know, when the other team just gives it away. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a whole lot better to win a giveaway game than to lose any game. But, there’s always a small part of me that feels, I don’t know, “guilty” is not the right word. “Sheepish,” maybe?

I honestly don’t know. I’ve asked friends if they feel that way when their team steals a win. They have pretty universally said: “HELL NO, ARE YOU CRAZY? A WIN IS A WIN!” So it might just be a me thing.

But I’m never entirely satisfied when the other team just gives it away.

On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers pulled off one of the great giveaways in memory. And I’m happy about it, obviously, because they gave the game away to my Cleveland Browns, who badly need the charity. This was the Browns‘ first win since the week before Thanksgiving. Plus, over the years, the Browns have given away more games than any team, so I should chalk this one up to karma and broken clocks being right twice a day and all that. I should just be thrilled.

Hey. Browns fans deserve happiness, too.

But, like 5% of me feels kind of embarrassed for everybody, particularly the Packers.

The Browns beat those Packers 13-10. Here’s how they did it — they were trailing 10-0 with the clock ticking down at the end of the third quarter. The Packers had the ball third and 1 as they neared midfield; they seemed on their way to at least another score of some kind. Then, even though they could have let the quarter just run out, Jordan Love called for the snap with, like, one second left, and then he dropped back and rolled out — it wasn’t entirely clear what he was trying to do — and he got sacked for an 11-yard loss.

It didn’t seem like much at the time, but it was weird. Why did he run the play? Why did they run THAT play? What was the point? I mean, yes, the Browns defense is actually very good. That’s legit. The Browns’ offense is historically terrible, but the defense is one of the best in football.

Anyway, I didn’t expect it to actually matter. The Packers still led 10-0. How in the world would this Browns offense actually score 10 points?

After an exchange of punts, we move to later action in the fourth quarter!*

The Browns got the ball at their own 20, and then they rather stunningly got back-to-back long runs from rookie running back Quinshon Judkins. It was the Browns’ first offensive sign of life since, I believe (don’t quote me on this), October 23, 1988, when Bernie Kosar hit Reggie Langhorne on a 25-yard touchdown pass against the Phoenix Cardinals.

That put the Browns on the Green Bay 28. A Joe Flacco pass to Harold Fannin moved it to the 14.

Then, the Browns stalled, as they often do … but the Packers committed a defensive holding penalty, to give the Browns a first down.

Then, the Browns stalled, as they often do … but the Packers committed a defensive pass interference penalty to give the Browns the ball on the 1.

Then, the Browns stalled — thanks to a bizarro call asking 93-year-old Joe Flacco to roll out on a pass play followed by a chop block — and they kicked a field goal.

Now the score was 10-3 with less than four minutes left.

At this point, the game was over. The Packers could have knelt three times and punted the ball away-there was no chance the Browns could drive the ball down the field and score the game-tying touchdown.

Instead, the Packers tried a different strategy — they ran the ball twice and on third-and-three went deep into their bag of tricks and called the “Jordan Love throws the worst interception of his life” play. Love executed the play masterfully, throwing the ball where only Cleveland Browns linebacker Grant Delpit had any chance of catching it. Delpit did catch it — the first Browns forced turnover of 2025 — and he returned it all the way to the Green Bay 4.

At this point, you had to give the Browns a good 13% chance of scoring the game-tying touchdown. But the Packers wanted to be sure, so they committed ANOTHER pass interference penalty in the end zone. That left just one yard, and Judkins smashed it in to tie the game at 10-10.

Now, the Packers were facing a real challenge: Yes, they’d admirably lost an unlosable 10-0 lead, but could they finish the job and actually lose to the Browns? It didn’t seem likely, not after Cleveland’s Myles Harden committed a long pass interference penalty of his own and Love connected with Tucker Craft on a pass that moved the ball into easy field goal range.

But the Packers were not done trying to lose. Packers running back Josh Jacobs fumbled on the next play, and the Browns probably recovered it. But the officials missed the whole thing, and the replay was inconclusive, so the Packers kept the ball and lined up for the game-winning 43-yard field goal from Brandon McManus. All of the Packers’ losing efforts seemed for naught.

Then, some miracles!

The Browns blocked the field goal and got the ball near midfield with 21 seconds left.

Green Bay’s Micah Parsons jumped offside.

Flacco threw an 8-yard pass to David Njoku and was then able to race down and spike the ball with two seconds left. This set up Cleveland rookie Andre Szmyt for the game-winning 55-yard field goal. Szmyt was the goat in Week 1 when the Browns gave the game away. But this time, the kid made it! Browns win! Packers lose!

But here’s the best part of all. Even if Szmyt had missed that field goal, it wouldn’t have mattered. The Packers jumped offside on the kick.

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