In Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday, Jake Bauers had what was one of the best at-bats in franchise history. Against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, one of the best postseason pitchers of his generation, he delivered a 12-pitch walk, which was followed by a two-run single that chased Yamamoto and sent the Brewers on their way.
This at-bat had a short reign as the best at-bat of Bauers’ career.
With one out in the seventh inning, against a cruising ace, just after the Dodgers reached Abner Uribe, took a late lead and regained all the momentum of the game, Bauers outdid himself. He faced Blake Snell on 11 pitches, the last of which ended up deep in the right-field seats at Dodger Stadium. The Brewers never looked back.
Bauers wasn’t the only hero. Jackson Chourio homered on the first pitch of the game. Garrett Mitchell followed Bauers with a homer of his own. Robert Gasser was huge, going five scoreless innings. DL Hall had one of the greatest moments of any Brewer reliever during a postseason full of great moments for Brewer relievers. The defense looked good. But Bauers has captured the headlines and memories, and the Brewers now need just one win in four to get to where they haven’t been in 44 years: the World Series.
Milwaukee got things going right away. On the very first pitch of the game, Chourio jumped on a fastball up the middle and hit it over the wall in right field. It was the last thing the Dodgers needed, and a huge early shock for the visiting team, as Milwaukee took an early 1-0 lead. With his third career postseason home run, Chourio moved into a tie for second on the all-time list for first postseason home runs. This is where I remind you that he is 22 years old.
It’s a good thing they got to Snell when they did. After Chourio’s homer, Snell retired the next three batters on just 11 pitches. In the second, he allowed a few baserunners – Mitchell walked and Cooper Pratt singled with one out – but he got out of that mess, then completely locked up. After Pratt’s single, Snell gave up the next 14 in a row. In doing so, he looked dominant.
In a twist few would have seen coming, Gasser was ready to match Snell. He did it very differently – Gasser wasn’t working with strikeouts and he got help from his defense (as evidenced by Luis Lara’s play in the second inning, shown below) – but the Dodgers found themselves unable to confront him. He scattered a few hits and dealt with first base runners three times, but no runner got past second, and the Dodgers never felt like they were really threatened against the left-handed Brewer. Gasser even stayed to face the top of the rankings for a third time; with a runner on first base and one out, Mookie Betts hit a hard line drive to center that was caught by Mitchell on a slide, and Freddie Freeman grounded out safely to end Gasser’s fifth and night.
It was a fantastic outing for the young southpaw Brewer. Building on his strong performance in San Diego – when he allowed one run on three hits in four innings – Gasser walked five, with three strikeouts, three hits allowed, a walk and a batter.
After Snell pitched a fourth straight perfect inning in the sixth, the Brewer bullpen took over, with Uribe to face the middle of the Dodger lineup. But Uribe didn’t have it today. He walked Teoscar Hernández and Kyle Tucker on just nine pitches, which breathed great life into the Los Angeles crowd. Dave Roberts, sensing a moment, pulled Andy Pages to get Max Muncy to bat against the right-handed Uribe, an aggressive but understandable move with Uribe having to face another batter. Muncy trailed Uribe 2-1, but Uribe found him and came back to take out Muncy.
While Hall was hot in the bullpen, Pat Murphy made a surprising non-move: He let Uribe stay to face Shohei Ohtani. Uribe still couldn’t find the area; he walked Ohtani on five pitches and the bases were loaded with one out for Will Smith. Smith, knowing that Uribe badly needed a strike on the first pitch, sat on the fastball and got one right up the middle – he slammed it against the wall in left for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
Murphy has made all the right moves throughout the playoffs so far, and it’s hard to guess… but not bringing in Uribe for Hall against Ohtani was a mistake you could see coming. Uribe worked a lot and he didn’t succeed tonight. After the Dodgers announced Josue De Paula as a pinch hitter, Murphy removed Uribe for Hall and Roberts responded by replacing De Paula with Kiké Hernández. With runners on second and third and one out, Hall struck out Hernández and Tommy Edman to keep the Dodgers at two – a huge pair of outs from left-hander Brewer.
Now, however, the Brewers needed to come up with something against a starting pitcher who had absolutely mowed them down from the second pitch of the game. Snell had only 81 pitches, and he still hadn’t allowed a baserunner since Pratt’s one-out single in the second inning. But he had been sitting for a while. Finally, in the top of the seventh inning, the Brewers ended Snell’s 14-game streak when Andrew Vaughn walked seven pitches, allowing the bullpen to move to Los Angeles.
Christian Yelich replaced Vaughn as the pinch runner while Bauers came to the plate. With Bauers’ long at-bat against Yamamoto fresh on the mound and with Snell approaching 90 pitches, the Brewers were hoping Bauers could work another long at-bat.
He therefore took the advantage 2-1. On 2-2, he fouled a few shots. He worked at 3-2. He made a mistake on another field. And then another. Then he hit a hard one down the right field line, one that looked like it might go out right off the bat…but he also fouled out.
The next guy didn’t make a mistake. Bauers got a fastball up the middle on the eleventh pitch at bat and he blew it. He hit it 109.4 mph deep into the right field seats, a two-run homer that flipped the scoreboard in the Brewers’ favor. Two days after his 12-pitch at-bat sparked Milwaukee’s rally against Yamamoto, an 11-pitch at-bat ended even better against Snell. A remarkable moment.
The Brewers weren’t done with Snell. With Mitchell, a lefty, Roberts tried to get one more batter out of his starter. It was a bad idea. Mitchell got a 1-0 changeup that took way too much home plate, and Mitchell blew it even harder and farther than Bauers, a 111.5 mph, 428 foot, no-doubt shot that doubled Milwaukee’s lead.
Hall continued for the Brewers in the bottom of the seventh, now pitching with a 4-2 lead. He got some help from his defense: Joey Ortiz made a good pick on a short jumper to get Betts for the first out, and Chourio made a nice running catch for the second. Ortiz made another good play on a weak ground ball, and Hall had taken his turn in the Brewer bullpen spotlight: five batters, five outs, two high-difficulty inherited runners stranded.
Roki Sasaki started the eighth for the Dodgers, but he was getting a lot of plates. Turang hit a single check-swing in the field with one out, and Contreras followed with a base hit up the middle, putting runners on the corners with one out for Yelich, who got his first at-bat of the game. Roberts was replaced by left-hander Justin Wrobleski for Yelich, who faced a pulling infield. He just missed an extra base hit on a chopper down the left field line that was called a foul on the first pitch he saw (upon closer inspection…it really looked like it could have been right), but it turned out the Brewers didn’t need Yelich to pass to get that insurance run: A ball in the dirt got away from Smith, both runners advanced, and the Brewers took a 5-2 lead. Wrobleski struck out Yelich and Bauers to end the inning, but Milwaukee now had a three-run lead that it just needed to protect for six more outs.
Hall, after spending one night, stayed until the end of the eighth. Tucker fought to start the inning, but he’s no Bauers, and he flew out to center on the eighth pitch of the bat. Hall then had a favorable game against Muncy, who had come in for Pages in the sixth, and Muncy came out. With two outs, Ohtani landed a 114 mph single up the middle – easily the best contact of the series for him – and Hall was grounded out in favor of closer Trevor Megill, who was brought in to face Smith. Smith flew out safely to Lara in right, and the Dodgers were down to three outs.
Pratt picked up his third hit of the game in the top of the ninth, and with two outs, he moved to second on a stolen base. Ortiz, who looked a little better at the plate today but had bad luck with BABIP, snuck in this time – a grounder got past Muncy in left field and Pratt scored. Classic Brewers baseball. Chourio bounced back to end the inning, but Megill, a pitcher unaccustomed to getting more than three outs, now had a four-run lead to work with.
It turned out that Megill didn’t need the extra cushion. He calmly retired the Dodgers in order, and the Brewers took a 6-2 victory and a 3-0 series lead.
What a remarkable and resilient team. After looking helpless against Snell for most of the game, and after the Dodgers finally broke through against the Brewer bullpen in the sixth, Bauers, Mitchell and the Brewers struck back with a hammer. Bauers’ home run immediately stands as one of the greatest moments in franchise history. Mitchell’s was another exclamation point. But let’s not forget Hall’s work; in retrospect, his two strikeouts in the previous inning couldn’t have been more important.
The Brewers have, improbably, a chance to close out the series tomorrow night. This match is at 7 p.m. Tyler Glasnow will start for the Dodgers, and we’ll see what the Brewers do with their pitching staff; It’s likely we’ll see Dustin May, and I bet you Aaron Ashby will play a big role considering he didn’t end up getting used to it tonight.
For now, I’ll just think about this.
Gn sports
