MOOSE BALL
MILWAUKEE — Extra innings, two outs and the winning run on third in Game 1 of the playoffs.
Short on playoff experience, the Brewers dealt for veteran Mike Moustakas over the summer to produce in just this kind of spot. Good deal. Moustakas drove home MVP frontrunner Christian Yelich with a twoout single in the 10th inning, and the Brewers bounced back to beat the Rockies 3-2 Thursday in their NL Division Series opener.
After giving up two runs in the ninth that made it 2-all, the Brewers regrouped and soon celebrated. Making their first postseason appearance since 2011, they won their ninth straight game overall.
Moustakas had already produced for Kansas City in October, hitting .304 in the 2015 World Series to help beat the Mets.
He’s doing it again in Milwaukee after being acquired from the Royals in late July.
“Being in a postseason a couple years back, it definitely helps,” Moustakas said.
Chants of “Mooose!” echoed around Miller Park after the winning hit. Joakim Soria picked up the win in the opener with a scoreless 10th.
Game 2 is Friday in Milwaukee with Colorado’s Tyler Anderson opposing Jhoulys Chacin, who led the Brewers with 35 starts this year. He started Monday when the Brewers beat the Cubs 3-1 in the NL Central tiebreaker at Wrigley Field.
Yelich hit a two-run homer in the third inning, then opened the 10th with a walk against Adam Ottavino, coming back from an 0-2 count.
Yelich made his postseason debut, though the even-keeled star spoke as if he had been through this before.
“You’re just trying to slow the situation down ... find a way to get on and make something happen, put some pressure on him,” Yelich said. “And Moose was able to come through there at the end with the huge hit.”
Yelich advanced to second on a wild pitch and came home on Moustakas’ line drive to right field. After almost winning the Triple Crown this year, Yelich got two hits, scored twice and stole a base in his playoff debut.
Moustakas, mean- while, had 15 RBIs in 31 postseason games while with the Royals. Make it 16 now in Milwaukee.
“Look, Moose has been in those spots,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He did a great job of it and finally got a pitch to it.”
Josh Hader and the Brewers allowed just one hit over eight innings in a dominant bullpen game and led 2-0 before Jeremy Jeffress gave up three straight singles to open the ninth. Charlie Blackmon grounded an RBI single shortly after his ground-rule double was overruled on replay review, and Nolan Arenado added a basesloaded sac fly to tie it.
But Colorado couldn’t come through in extras again after outlasting the Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings in the NL wildcard game on Tuesday.
“Everybody knows I throw a lot of sliders. In that spot, I wanted to elevate. I wanted to get a little higher than I got it,” Ottavino said. “I think I guessed what he was looking for wrong there.”