BLAST FROM THE PAST
MILWAUKEE — Justin Turner took a giant uppercut swing in Saturday’s eighth inning that transformed the Brewers’ yellow rally towels into rags suitable for soaking up spilled beer.
The entire momentum of this NLCS shifted with that swing, a two-run jolt into the left-field seats that sent the Dodgers to a 4-3 victory over the Brewers in Game 2 at Miller Park.
Suddenly, there are questions whether Milwaukee’s vaunted bullpen can shoulder the burden of carrying the Brewers to their first World Series since 1982. The loss snapped the Brewers’ 12-game winning streak and sent the series to Los Angeles tied 1-1.
Turner, the former Mets backup infielder who has blossomed into a star over the past five seasons in Hollywood, smashed a 2-0 splitter from Jeremy Jeffress and gave the Dodgers their first lead. Turner’s heroics came a day after he struck out four times in the Dodgers’ 6-5 loss.
“I think it’s well-documented it was the worst game of my career, offensively,” Turner said. “But I think you just shrug it off to be about baseball. We’ve got to go to sleep and show up and do it again today.”
Turner entered with a .313 postseason lifetime batting average that was second in franchise history to Steve Garvey’s .346 mark. And Monday is the one-year anniversary of the walkoff homer he hit at Dodger Stadium to beat the Cubs in Game 2 of the NLCS.
Turner’s .438 career on-base percentage in the postseason entering play ranked fourth all-time behind Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Gene Woodling.
“If you are talking about the grind, the tough conversations, the identity of our ballclub, [Turner] is probably the face,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He personifies ev- erything that I believe in as a baseball player, as a professional. He’s the glue for our club.”
Pedro Baez, Caleb Ferguson, Kenta Maeda and Kenley Jansen protected the Dodgers’ lead over the final two innings. It didn’t come without a heartbeat-skipping moment for the Dodgers, as pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson’s flyball to right with the tying run on base in the eighth landed in Yasiel Puig’s glove near the fence.
Dissipated for the Dodgers was the sour taste of Clayton Kershaw’s clunker a night earlier, when the ace lefty lasted just three innings and allowed five runs in his latest postseason fiasco.
“It can’t be any closer after two games, right?” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s been two hard-fought games, two one-run games, tying run on base, in scoring position to finish each game, so they have been about as close as can be.”
The Dodgers had their initial chance in the seventh against Jeffress, but pinchhitter Yasmani Grandal hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded after the Brewers’ lead had shrunk to 3-2. In the inning, Cody Bellinger delivered a pinch-hit RBI single — snapping an 0-for-15 to start the postseason — before Austin Barnes walked with the bases loaded for a second run.
Travis Shaw’s homer in the sixth increased the Brewers’ lead to 3-0, but the bullpen collapse began in the seventh. Chris Taylor singled in the eighth to start the Dodgers’ go-ahead rally, bringing Turner to the plate.
“They obviously like that bullpen and they trust that bullpen and they want their bullpen in the game as much as they can,” Turner said. “I did see that [Corey] Knebel was in the bullpen warming up, but I don’t know if he was up in time or ready, so I got ready to face Jeffress.”