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MILWAUKEE – Brandon Woodruff continued to watch the flight of the ball, placed against the light gray roof of Miller Park, blazing higher and higher. Maybe he too could not believe what was happening.
Woodruff, a relief pitcher from the Milwaukee Brewers, had just taken over Clayton Kershaw in the opening game of the National League series. The Los Angeles Dodgers stood back to the plate, shoulders slumped, gaping, and followed the hit across the field wall, center right. Woodruff did not slow down until he did, then his arms started beating, veins sank in his neck, and the Brewers were about to win 6 at 5 on Friday night.
[Game 1 box score: Brewers 6, Dodgers 6]
This was the first home run of the playoffs for a Brewers reliever in franchise history, and the first to rank among the top runners in the generation. It was also the third pitch of a pitcher in playoff history. This is one of the few times that a pitcher's attack has shocked a post-season game that has changed course.
This was the first round of the Brewers in a series that matched the depth of their abilities against a team of Dodgers based on a powerful range and a remarkable rotation. And so, it was also fitting that Woodruff, the team of this pen, associate his circuit to the inning with two scoreless innings, tied to three blank frames for reliever Josh Hader, which ultimately leads to the Brewers' 12th consecutive victory in a sequence only tested how many different ways they can win.
But it was not without the Dodgers 'late attack, which made its way into the famous Brewers' field with three points in the eighth and one in the ninth before Corey Knebel scored the equalizer in the third. goal.
The different styles of the teams were apparent before the first throw on Friday, in the choice of each coach for the first game, with Kershaw for the Dodgers and Gio Gonzalez against him.
[Brewers’ Gio Gonzalez calls starting Game 1 of NLCS ‘a pretty cool story’]
By launching Gonzalez – the former Washington Nationals starter, who joined the Brewers with an ERA of 4.57 on Aug. 31 -, manager Craig Counsell has doubled on his unconventional approach to the use of launchers. Gonzalez did not participate in the sweep of the Brewers' three games against the Colorado Rockies in the Division Series by National League. He did not score well in six starts in the playoffs.
Still, Gonzalez was never expected to engage in Friday night's game. The Brewers do not set such expectations for their pitchers. They do not have the starting staff of a dangerous team for the playoffs. They have the feather of a unit, with a lot of velocity, three close dominant options and a handful of converted coaches, in total a group of weapons that Counsell deploys at any time of the game.
By winning Kershaw, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has begun to roll out his dominant rotation, the one that thrives in October, the one that is supposed to win championships. Kershaw will be followed by left-handed Hyun-jin Ryu in the second game. Then comes the rookie sensation Walker Buehler. Then veteran Rich Hill after that.
From the beginning, each team had a difficult task: the Brewers against the Ace Dodgers, the Dodgers against a versatile stick used in many ways. The Dodgers first met the challenge when Manny Machado opened the scoring with a home victory for Gonzalez. It was the third round of Machado and the first win for the Brewers after a winless victory over the Rockies in the LNDS. It also put the Brewers marker in perpetual motion once Woodruff started warming up, with just six in-game hunters, and he quickly replaced Gonzalez early in the third inning.
But the Brewers responded quickly, with the least likely swings for the southpaw, the punch out of Woodruff that had propelled Kershaw's fastball to an altitude of 407 feet and crossing the barrier. Woodruff, 25, took part in the game with a home win in 22 major league games. After hitting his second goal, left, in the sixth pitch of the attack, he turned to the Brewers canoe and shouted "Let's go!" As he trotted between first and second goals . The Brewers exploded enthusiastically, nobody more than Gonzalez, who hammered both his hands on the padded railing and shouted "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Followed Miller Park.
The home race sent the shot to a sloppy run for the Dodgers, pushed further by the fragile defender Yasmani Grandal's defender behind the plate, while the Brewers scored a new round with the sacrificial volley of Hernan Perez. Grandal helped the Brewers pass the ball, allowing Jesus Aguilar to intervene through the receiver's game and make a mistake that could have caused even more damage if Kershaw had not stepped out of the box.
Then, Woodruff, already the hero, eliminated Max Muncy, Machado and Matt Kemp with a fastball in the mid-90s and a biting slider. Then he flapped his glove as the crowd roared around him again. Then, Domingo Santana, a topping for Woodruff the next inning, broke out in two more innings to break the game.
This led Roberts to hook Kershaw after recording just nine outs and giving up five points, four of which were won. Ryan Madson added to this by selling an RBI single to Ryan Braun before the end of the fourth. Hader then joined the Brewers and, by throwing three scoreless innings, scored as many outs as Kershaw in another disappointing start for the Dodgers starter.
His teammates did not do better than if they scored three points in the eighth inning, infusing a bit of dynamism into the Dodgers' attack before Game 2 on Saturday. But match 1 was still in Milwaukee's corrector, starting in the third inning, since Kershaw thought a fastball in the middle could reach the attacker standing 60 feet 6 inches off the box.
This is not the case. Brandon Woodruff is sure of that.
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