Maybe the Milwaukee Brewers really are the Average Joes of Major League Baseball, even if Blake Snell isn’t buying that moniker.
While exact details of their wrench-dodging abilities remain unclear, they sure showed in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series that they can dodge a ball.
A momentary, involuntary reaction by second baseman Brice Turang loomed large in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Brewers fell, 2-1, to Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the series-opener on Oct. 13 at American Family Field.
After eight innings of pure dominance from Snell, the Brewers mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth against the weak link of the Dodgers, their bullpen. With the bases loaded and the tying run on third, Turang’s quick reflexes on a slider destined to clip his back leg resulted in him narrowly escaping the pitch that would have drawn the teams even and brought Andrew Vaughn up with a chance to win it.
“It’s a natural reaction,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “…It’s a breaking ball, your natural thing is to do that. I know he was thinking the same thing after the ball passed. It happens. He’ll learn from that situation.”
Instead, Turang struck out on the next pitch, a fastball at his eyes, to put the final dagger into a crushing defeat.
The Brewers had little hope against Snell; they sure did in the ninth after he was removed, though.
Ninth inning rally falls short
After having no hope of touching Snell for eight innings, the Brewers finally got their shot in the ninth.
With Roki Sasaki on to try and close it out, Isaac Collins drew a one-out walk and moved to third when Jake Bauers, representing the tying run, doubled to center.
A Jackson Chourio sacrifice fly to the warning track in right-center, a ripped liner with an expected batting average of .410, put the Brewers on the board and moved the tying run to third, but created a second out. Christian Yelich worked Sasaki for a walk, which was enough for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who took the ball and handed it to Blake Treinen with William Contreras due up.
Contreras turned a 1-2 count into a walk, bringing up Turang, whose best chance of winning the game came on the first pitch, a fastball over the plate that he fouled back. Few can blame Turang for instinctively bailing on a projectile spinning toward his body for Ball 2, but the exacerbation of the tough at-bat came on the fastball a foot above the top of the zone he swung through.
Of course, rather than it being a full count and one ball away from tying it, it was a 1-0 series hole.
Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell dominate
The afternoon before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, Milwaukee Brewers manager Murphy waxed poetic about Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. Then he did the same about Snell.
“Freddie Freeman,” he said, “is like my favorite person, player in the game. He’s ruined Brewers history many times, but I still love him. I think he’s a terrific player and even more terrific person.”
One day later, Freeman did his part to ruin Brewers history again. Snell took care of the rest.
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With one out in a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, Freeman lofted a fly ball off right-hander Chad Patrick that nearly reached the roof of American Family Field before settling in the right field seats for a solo home run in a 2-1 Dodgers win despite a ninth-inning Milwaukee rally on Monday, Oct. 13.
Since the league moved to its seven-game format in 1985, the winner of Game 1 of the NLCS has advanced to the World Series 69.2% of the time.
Freeman’s homer was game-changing; what Snell did on the mound to the Brewers was game-deciding.
The Dodgers left-hander made mincemeat of the Brewers lineup, turning in one of the most singularly dominant postseason outings in recent memory.
Calling his own game most of the way, Snell turned his craft into an artform, changing speeds like a highway speeder who sees a cop ahead before reaching back for the upper-90s gas once he had slowed down the Milwaukee bats.
Snell told reporters leading into his start he wasn’t falling for the Brewers’ ‘Average Joes’ moniker, calling them “a really good team” and pointing out they have the best record in baseball.
Once he took the mound, Snell carved up that really good team anyway.
Aside from a Caleb Durbin flare single leading off the third, the Brewers got nothing against Snell. No hits, no walks, no hit batters, no errors.
Zip. Zilch. Nada.
With Durbin thrown out on the bases following his hit, Snell even faced the minimum, becoming just the second pitcher in MLB postseason history to do so through eight innings.
There’s a reason Snell is part of a rotation making $131.8 million in the average annual value of their contracts this year, and it’s to deliver another title to Tinseltown.
To say Milwaukee stood no chance against him may even be overstating it. Snell generated 22 whiffs, including an incredible 14 on 23 swings against his changeup. Before a pair of 100 mph groundouts in the seventh, he had given up only one batted ball over 88 mph.
“What’s his name? Shell? Snell. I’m joking, of course,” Murphy said before Game 1. “I’ve been very disappointed when he’s pitched and I’m in the stadium. He’s really good.”
The matchup the Dodgers want goes their way in sixth
Murphy managed the first six innings to the script. Get Aaron Ashby through Freeman, then turn it over to Quinn Priester until Freeman’s spot comes up again, then turn to your right-handed workhorses in the bullpen.
Of course, the Dodgers lineup presents landmines at every turn. Patrick ran into one.
Brought in to face a gamut of right-handed hitters in the sixth, Patrick threw a 3-2 four-seamer at 96 mph that Freeman, the only lefty in the stretch of four hitters he was pegged to face, flicked a mile into the sky and 362 feet from home plate in right. Jackson Chourio kept retreating and retreating as the ball soared, but he ran out of room as it just cleared the wall.
The craziest double play you will ever see
There’s no hyperbole here: Sal Frelick’s chaos catch-or-no catch in center field resulted in the most absurd double play you will ever see in the major leagues.
With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, Max Muncy launched a fly ball to the deepest throes of the field, sending Frelick back to the fence. The Brewers center fielder left his feet to make a leaping grab as the ball headed toward the top of the yellow padding atop the wall. Frelick kept the ball from going over the fence but couldn’t hang onto it, as it popped out of his glove and bounced off the top of the fence before he corralled it for good.
That threw the entire stadium into flux – third base runner Teoscar Hernández included.
First, Hernandez tagged from third. Then, confused, he tagged again after taking a few steps. A heady play by shortstop Joey Ortiz to throw home beat him to the plate. Catcher William Contreras, maybe the only other person on the diamond understanding exactly what was going on, kept his foot on the dish and stretched rather than going for a swipe tag, sealing the first out.
The runner at second base, Will Smith, never ran, thinking the ball was caught. Seeing third base unoccupied, Contreras simply sprinted to the bag, ball in hand, to turn two.
The play officially was scored as Muncy grounding into a double play despite hitting the ball 404 feet, the longest GIDP in the pitch tracking era (since 2008), including the postseason.
Abner Uribe can’t find it in ninth
Pitching on one days’ rest after recording the final six outs of Game 5 of the NLDS, Abner Uribe had a rough go of it.
With diminished velocity, the Brewers closer walked the leadoff batter in the top of the ninth and later walked him in with a bases-loaded free pass to Mookie Betts, a run that proved critical.
Uribe was sitting 95 to 97 mph with his sinker, which typically runs in the range of 98 to 99 mph.
Opener works this time with Aaron Ashby
When the Brewers sent Aaron Ashby out as an opener in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, it didn’t go well. Put in to face the lefties atop the Cubs order, Ashby struggled with his command and gave up a three-run home run in the first inning.
This time, he produced different results. After an auspicious start with a walk of Shohei Ohtani, Ashby retired the next three batters, finishing with a strikeout of Freeman.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After Blake Snell dominates for eight innings, Brewers’ rally in ninth falls short in NLCS Game 1 loss to Dodgers
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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