Moustakas fills hero’s role again
Former Kansas City star drives home winning run for Milwaukee in 10th
MILWAUKEE — Extra innings, two outs and the winning run on third in Game 1 of the playoffs.
Short on playoff experience, the Milwaukee Brewers dealt for veteran Mike Moustakas over the summer to produce in just this kind of spot. Good deal. Moustakas scored MVP front-runner Christian Yelich with a two-out single in the 10th inning as the Brewers bounced back to beat the Colorado Rockies, 32, Thursday in their National League Division Series opener.
After giving up two runs in the ninth that made it 2all, the Brewers regrouped and soon celebrated the thrilling victory.
Making their first postseason appearance since 2011, they won their ninth game in a row overall.
Moustakas already had produced just these kinds of results for Kansas City in October, hitting .304 in the 2015 World Series to help beat the New York 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.
Game 2 is Friday in Milwaukee.
Colorado lefthander Tyler Anderson will draw the start against righthander Jhoulys Chacin, who led Milwaukee with 35 starts this year.
He started Monday when the Brewers beat the Chicago 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 evenkeeled 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.
After almost winning the Triple Crown this year, Yelich got two hits, scored twice and stole a base in his playoff debut.
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 consecutive singles to open the ninth.
Charlie Blackmon grounded an RBI single shortly after his ground-rule double was overruled following a replay review, and Nolan Arenado added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to tie it.
But Colorado couldn’t come through in extras again after outlasting the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, in 13 innings in the NL wild-card game 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.”
Joakim Soria picked up the win in the opener with a scoreless 10th.
“Look, Moose has been in those spots,” manager Craig Counsell said.
“It’s something that you try to not make the situation too big, and he did a great job of it and finally got a pitch to it.”