A DEVASTATING KNOCKOUT BLOW
Freeman’s homer off Hader ends Milwaukee’s season
ATLANTA – One of the most successful and memorable seasons in Milwaukee Brewers history came to an abrupt and bitter end on Tuesday night.
Freddie Freeman homered off Josh Hader with two outs in the eighth inning and that proved to be the difference as the Brewers were eliminated by the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, 5-4, at Truist Park.
The homer was just the second allowed by Hader this season and the first to a left-handed batter since last season, making the loss that much more difficult to swallow for a Milwaukee team that just a couple weeks ago had designs on a World Series appearance thanks in large part to its strong pitching.
But the Brewers lost five of six to close out the regular season after clinching the Central Division title and taking their collective foot off the gas, and they ultimately never were able to regain their mojo – with a sagging offense the primary reason.
The offense actually performed relatively well in this one, battling to a 4-4 tie through five innings. The deadlock carried over to the eighth, when Hader replaced Brandon Woodruff with manager Craig Counsell pulling out all the stops as the season hung in the balance.
Hader overpowered both Eddie Rosario – who got Atlanta on the board with a two-run single in the fourth – and Dansby Swanson to bring Freeman to the plate.
Having been kept under wraps the entire series, Freeman swung at the first offering from Hader, an 84 mph slider he left over the plate, and sent it out to left-center to make it a 5-4
game.
Ex-Brewer Will Smith came on to pitch the ninth for the Braves and after allowing a leadoff single to Eduardo Escrobar, he retired the final three batters he faced.
It only seemed fitting the final out was made by Christian Yelich, who was caught looking at Smith's third pitch.
The momentum shifted in a big way three times in an inning and a half, first when the Braves tied it at 2-2 on Rosario's single in the fourth and again when they turned to right-hander Huascar Ynoa to pitch the fifth.
Yelich welcomed him with a single and two batters later Rowdy Tellez smoked a 448-foot homer out at 110.5 mph over the waterfall in dead center to again put the Brewers ahead by a pair.
On came rookie Aaron Ashby in what was easily the biggest moment of his young career.
The results weren't good.
After opening with a strikeout of Freeman, Ozzie Albies singled, Austin Riley walked and Adam Duvall was nicked in the elbow by a pitch to load the bases.
That brought up Joc Pederson, who was starting after it was learned about an hour before game time that regular right fielder Jorge Soler had tested positive for COVID-19.
Pederson sent a chopper to the left side of the infield that scored Riley and made it 4-3. Travis d'Arnaud then laced a sharp single under the glove of a diving Tellez at first and again Atlanta had knotted the score.
Ashby got a second inning in the sixth but after allowing a pair of two-out singles he was pulled for Woodruff, who was pitching on just two days' rest after throwing 91 pitches in a Game 2 loss.
Woodruff needed only one pitch to retire Riley and he worked around letting a popup drop on the infield to start the Braves' seventh to keep Atlanta off the board before making way for Hader.
Milwaukee's offense went back into mothballs after Tellez's homer, with 11 straight batters retired going into the ninth.
Eric Lauer starting on 12 days' rest vs. the veteran Charlie Morton going on only three was an interesting contrast.
But in the case of Lauer, Milwaukee felt confident not rushing ace Corbin Burnes back because of how well the left-hander had performed all season, and particularly over his last 15 appearances (14 starts).
In those, he'd gone 6-2 with a 2.23 earned run average and 76 strikeouts in 802 ⁄3 innings. He also limited opposing hitters to a .188 average over that span.
Overall, Lauer was 7-5 with a 3.19 ERA, WHIP of 1.14 and 117 strikeouts in 118 2/3 innings over 24 appearances (20 starts) in three separate stints with Milwaukee.
Considering the seven right-handed bats Atlanta had in its lineup, the lefthander Lauer might not have seemed like a great matchup.
But Lauer actually was slightly tougher on right-handed hitters compared to lefties, limiting them to .211 and .228 cumulative averages, respectively, while the Braves went 23-18 (.561) in games against lefty starters.
He worked around a leadoff groundrule double by Dansby Swanson in the first and got out of a two-on, one-out situation in the second when Duvall was doubled up on a routine fly ball off the bat of Guillermo Heredia.
Lauer's night came to a premature end in the fourth with Milwaukee leading, 2-0.
Austin Riley led off with a single and then Duvall fouled out on a crazy play where he sent a foul popup near the Brewers' on-deck circle that catcher Omar Narváez dropped but third baseman Luis Urías snagged with a diving try on the rebound.
Following some confusion about whether the play could be reviewed – ultimately, it couldn't by rule – Pederson fouled out. Lauer followed by walking d'Arnaud and hit the No. 8 hitter Heredia to load the bases.
Counsell pulled Lauer for Hunter Strickland after Orlando Arcia had been announced as the pinch-hitter. Braves manager Brian Snitker responded by pulling Arcia in favor of the left-handedhitting Rosario.
Strickland got ahead in the count, 0-2, but Rosario went down and got a 98 mph, four-seam fastball and sent it to center for a two-RBI single.
Swanson then scalded a ball down the third-base line only to see Urías make an outstanding play and throw down to second for the third out and preserve the tie.
The 37-year-old Morton, meanwhile, entered having pitched on short rest twice in his career.
The previous time was quite memorable, as Morton closed out Game 7 of the 2017 World Series with Houston, allowing one run over the final four innings as the Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-1.
Morton came in 4-1 with a 1.52 ERA in postseason clinching situations, with his teams going 5-1 in those games.
He didn't wait long to display his moxie. Morton opened by hitting Kolten Wong with a pitch and surrendered a single to Willy Adames only to sandwich a pair of strikeouts around a tremendous play at third by a charging Riley on a slow roller by Avisaíl García and emerge unscathed.
Morton extended Milwaukee's scoreless streak to 22 innings entering the third.
A leadoff single by García, sacrifice fly by Tellez and walk by Urías put two on with one out in the fourth for Narváez, and he capped a six-pitch battle by dumping a single into left-center that scored García.
The run was Milwaukee's first since the seventh inning of Game 1 and led to the exit of Morton after 69 pitches.
Jesse Chavez entered and was greeted by an RBI single to center by Lorenzo Cain that scored Urías. Lauer bunted Cain up and Wong walked to load the bases but Adames was caught looking, leaving Milwaukee with the 2-0 lead.