Finally, Freeman ends it
After record scoreless duel, All-Star lifts Braves to win
ATLANTA — Freddie Freeman singled home the winning run in the 13th inning, finally ending the longest scoreless duel in postseason history as the Braves beat the Reds 1-0 in the opener of their NL wild-card series Wednesday.
The NL East champion Braves won the first game of a postseason series for the first time since the 2001 NLDS and can wrap up the best-of-three series Thursday.
If they do, it will snap a recordtying streak of 10 straight playoffround losses.
What began as a pitching showdown between between Cy Young contenders Trevor Bauer of the Reds and the Braves’ Max Fried devolved into a strikeout contest.
The teams combined for a postseason record 37 Ks — 21 by the Braves. After a couple of hits in the 13th against Archie Bradley, Freeman drove one into center field off Amir Garrett against a five-man infield with one out to end a game that dragged on for more than 41⁄ hours.
2
A four-time All-Star, Freeman produced another big year in a pandemic
shortened season after a battle with COVID-19 in July so severe that he said he prayed: “Please don’t take me.”
In the 13th, he was in a situation he relishes.
“That’s the guy we want up there,” manager Brian Snitker said.
A.J. Minter escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the 13th for the win — the third straight inning the Reds pushed a runner to third but couldn’t get him another 90 feet. “That was a very stressful 41⁄
2 hours,” Freeman said with a chuckle.
The clubs combined to use 14 pitchers and it lasted so long that the lights came on at Truist Park in the
13th — for a game that began just after noon on a sunny, 70-degree day.
It was historic as the first postseason game to be scoreless after 11 innings, but hardly a masterpiece.
With the designated runner at second base no longer in play for postseason games, two teams that rely heavily on the long ball took turns just flailing away at the plate.
Bauer certainly lived up to his billing as one of baseball’s best pitcher. The outspoken right-hander became the first pitcher in big league history to record 12 strikeouts with no walks, while allowing no runs and two or fewer hits in a postseason start.