An extra sigh of relief
Rally in 10th inning caps tense Game 1
Although it took an extra inning to do it, the Milwaukee Brewers’ first postseason victory since 2011 is in the books.
Following a rough ninth inning from Jeremy Jeffress that allowed the Colorado Rockies to tie the game, Mike Moustakas picked up his teammate with a two-out, two-strike walk-off single in the 10th that won Game 1 of the National League Division Series, 3-2.
It was just the Brewers’ second postseason game to go extra innings, with the other coming in Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS. That one was won by a walk-off single by Nyjer Morgan, who perhaps in a bit of serendipity threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
“Definitely an unbelievable moment,” Moustakas said. “Wouldn’t have been able to be there unless (Christian Yelich) didn’t do his job and everybody else on that field didn’t do their jobs.
“Just got a good situation and was able to put the ball in play.”
The game-winning rally was started by none other than the aforementioned Yelich, whose two-run home run in the third inning stood until the ninth.
He worked a seven-pitch walk from Adam Ottavino, Colorado’s tough setup man, and quickly advanced to second
on a wild pitch.
Ryan Braun struck out and the Rockies intentionally walked Travis Shaw in an attempt to set up the double play. Pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson grounded softly into a fielder’s choice, moving Yelich to third.
That brought up Moustakas, the veteran of two World Series with the Kansas City Royals in 2014 and ‘15. Up for the fifth time on the night and having hit the ball hard twice previously with nothing to show for it, Moustakas quickly fell behind in the count, 0-2.
He fouled off Ottavino’s third pitch before rifling a 96-mph fastball into right that scored Yelich with the gamewinner and sent the sellout crowd of 43,382 into a frenzy as the Brewers won their ninth consecutive game.
“It was an awesome atmosphere in there, so adrenaline was running high,” Moustakas said. “You’re just tying to not do too much -- try and put the barrel to the ball. I was fortunate enough that he threw me another pitch over the plate and got the barrel through at that time and hit some outfield grass.
“It feels pretty good to finish the way we did.”
The Brewers were leading, 2-0, and had a tailor-made chance to tack on in the eighth when Yelich walked and Braun singled and stole second to put two on with nobody out in the bottom of the frame.
Shaw and Keon Broxton followed by striking out, and after Moustakas was intentionally walked, Manny Piña grounded out.
That failure to score came back to haunt Milwaukee.
Jeffress, the fifth pitcher to see action in what was a full bullpen game for the Brewers, opened by allowing singles to Gerardo Parra and Matt Holliday to bring leadoff man Charlie Blackmon to the plate.
Having gone 0 for 3 to that point, Blackmon appeared to have tied the game when he sent a drive down the right-field line that umpire John Tumpane ruled fair. Parra and Holliday scored and Blackmon wound up at third with an apparent triple. It would have been a ground-rule double since the ball bounded out of play, though.
The Brewers challenged, and in just 34 seconds the call was overturned. Blackmon responded with a single to right and Parra scored to get the Rockies onto the board.
D.J. LeMahieu, up next, sent a soft roller to shortstop Orlando Arcia. Having already made one dynamite defensive play earlier in the game, Arcia this time let the ball trickle under his glove for an error, leaving the bases loaded.
Nolan Arenado fell behind in the count, 0-2, before sending a fly ball to center on the third pitch from Jeffress that pinch-runner Garrett Hampson tagged and scored on to tie it at 2-2.
Blackmon was then tagged out in a rundown between third and home on a grounder to first and Trevor Story struck out to finally retire the Rockies.
“Just doing it like I’ve done all year -attack them, try to get them out as quick as possible,” Jeffress said. “Couple of seeing-eye singles, fell behind a little bit. But you can’t dwell on that. It’s just what happens.”
Milwaukee went down in order in the bottom of the ninth. Joakim Soria (1-0) worked a 1-2-3 10th to set the stage for Moustakas’ game-winner, while the Rockies went into extra innings for the second time in as many games.
After going 1-0 with a 0.73 earned run average in seven September outings, Brandon Woodruff was first out of the chute in what manager Craig Counsell termed Wednesday as a “bullpen day.”
Woodruff allowed just one base-runner – a walk to LeMahieu two batters in – and he was dispatched one batter later when Piña gunned him down as he tried stealing second.
Braun singled with two outs in the bottom of the first to give Milwaukee its first base-runner, but he was eventually thrown out at home after trying to score from second on Antonio Senzatela’s second wild pitch.
Woodruff breezed through the second and third, striking out three, before being lifted for pinch-hitter Domingo Santana to lead off the bottom of the third.
Santana popped out, but Lorenzo Cain followed with a walk to bring up Yelich, who carried his late-season offensive tear over by booming a homer to left-center to get Milwaukee out to the
early lead.
Woodruff handed the ball off to rookie Corbin Burnes for the fourth, giving the Brewers their 2016 and ‘17 minorleague pitchers of the year the first two opportunities in the franchise’s first postseason game in seven years.
Burnes didn’t disappoint, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun with his fastball and striking out three over two innings. He did surrender the Rockies’ first hit.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
QUITE A CHANGE: Counsell was asked how different it felt to be managing the Brewers in the playoffs as opposed to playing for them as he did most recently in 2011, when he was a reserve utility man.
“Closer than you think because I never played, so I was doing a lot of the thinking about this stuff because I knew I wasn’t going to play,” he quipped.
WAIT AND SEE: After being skipped for his final regular-season start in St. Louis for Dan Jennings and Freddy Peralta and then not having pitched since, Chase Anderson was left off the NLDS roster. Counsell said things will change with regard to the pitching staff if the Brewers advance to the next round.
“We thought Freddy was a very good matchup against that team. And then we didn’t use the fifth starter with the day off the next time through,” Counsell said.
LOCK ‘EM UP: With general manager David Stearns’ name popping up in rumors regarding open GM jobs -- the New York Mets in particular -- team principal owner Mark Attanasio was asked about the contract statuses of both Stearns and Counsell. He said each has “two to three years left.”
YOUNG BUCKS: The starting matchup of Woodruff (25 years, 236 days old) and Senzatela (23 years, 256 days) was the youngest in postseason game since Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura (24 years, 149 days) and the New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard (23 years, 62 days) started Game 3 of the 2015 World Series.
CONNECTIONS: There is only one former Brewer -- Parra -- on the Rockies’ NLDS roster. Colorado’s bullpen coach, Ronnie Gideon, is the father of the Brewers’ 23rd-round pick in the 2016 draft, Ronnie Gideon Jr., who was released by the organization on June 18.