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MILWAUKEE – It's become a trope to call the National League series a game of chess, and that's certainly it. But for Dave Roberts, the Los Angeles Dodgers manager, it was not a small move. He did not push a pawn in front of a box. He moved your knight from the beginning and put the enemy in defense.
This move: Roberts began David Freese, 35, squeezed by the left and slow, as a leading striker against left-winger Wade Miley of the Milwaukee Brewers. As you may remember, Miley made his second consecutive start, though in Game Five he surprised everyone by strategically shooting after a batter.
L.A. has found a way to meet all the challenges he has faced this season. Will this resilience save the Dodgers from Game 7?
Walker Buehler will start for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the seventh game of the NLCS on Saturday. Jhoulys Chacin will fight for the Milwaukee Brewers with a place in the World Series online.
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
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"You just do not know how it's going to go," Roberts said before the game. "With the way we've structured the composition and the guys we have on the bench, it gives us some flexibility as to how we want to use the guys on the bench."
Freese had started exactly three regular season games as a head scorer in his 10 major seasons. This is not Willie Wilson. Freese has only eight bases stolen in career and zero since 2015. Roberts told him to stick to his usual approach. Freese started the match by lining up a 2-2 Miley offer on the right field wall.
Dodgers 1, Brewers 0. Miller Park was celebrating, with more than 43,000 fans infected for a week by a virulent Brewers fever that invaded the city of Milwaukee. The former Commissioner and former owner of Brewers, Bud Selig, even caught him, saying at a pre-game press conference: "What is it? I can not stay here and tell you I'm not looking for the Brewers. "
But reality has the means to overcome euphoria. The Dodgers are post-season matches, still aiming to win one more game than in 2017, when they lost a win before defeating a 29-year-old championship drought. Los Angeles entered the series as a favorite and there was an emerging sense of inevitability.
Then, Manny Machado went forward to the plate. The last villain of baseball was guaranteed to be booed after his ball game with Jesus Aguilar of Milwaukee in the fourth game. But it was a series to tell. Supported hoes that resounded and resounded around the closed roof of Miller Park. It was a cover of melted Wisconsin scorn cheese. Strangely, the mere presence of Machado seemed to revive the fury with which the fans started the game.
"I felt my chest tighten, she was so strong inside," said Miley. "Obviously, they booed Manny in his first game, it was pretty noisy."
It got stronger and stronger when Machado hired Justin Turner on first base. After a ground defeat in Cody Bellinger, Miley was no longer in the sleeve, down. But it has not been long long.
It started with a small scroll in the center of Lorenzo Cain that he escaped for an inside kick. Cain did not often start playing lead in his career, although he did it much more often than Freese. But he understands the work.
"I was able to start to get started," said Cain. "I absolutely have to be at maximum, because when I'm on, we get things done, we did a good job, just trying to put the ball in play right there, find my way." had the inner field that was hitting in. Everything started after that. "
The MVP candidate in difficulty, Christian Yelich, pushed Cain forward on virgin terrain. Ryan Braun walked. The roar continued to intensify, temporarily dampened when Travis Shaw hit.
This has brought Aguilar, the extremely powerful first baseman, who, as surprising as it may seem, is even slower than Freese. But when Aguilar puts a ball in her feet, she takes off, and that's probably why the fans of Brewers shouted. Aguilar hit 35 homers during the season, including 18 at Miller Park. And Milwaukee is a home run team, with 218 dingers during the season who ranked second in the NL at 235.
Cain and Braun ran around the bases to score, giving Milwaukee a lead that he never gave up. Aguilar – eventually – slipped into the second goal with a double. He has turned out to be the hero.
"I just tried to be aggressive," Aguilar said. "The most important thing for me at the end of the day is to win games, and tomorrow it may be somebody else, tonight it was me and I was there. I'm really happy about it. "
The Brewers, happy from home, have replicated Aguilar 's approach throughout the training. Mike Moustakas also doubled in the corner, beating Aguilar. The crowd vibrated.
"Electricity in this stadium once we had this first important round, it took us through the rest of the match," said Moustakas. "You can feel that as a player, you feed on it."
Receiver Erik Kratz, who became a kind of folk hero around Milwaukee, then asked right to score Moustakas and crown the rally. That was quite an answer to Freese's original lightning. Milwaukee ended up sending his nine starters to the plate in this round.
"Everyone in this round has done something of quality for us," said Kratz. "The key advantage of the bat with two outs, that is Aggie who clears it.This is nothing against Ryu, but we kept on waiting. Was the first throw, sometimes it was the change with two strokes Aggie with two withdrawals You have to find the green, you have to find the ball, you have to find the lands to push to the field outside. "
The Brewers scored another point in the second when Braun named Yelich home. The game was far from over, but a game in the game began to unfold.
All series, we talked about the unique role played by Milwaukee's dominant leftist, Josh Hader, in the Brewers' stacked register. He is so good, and so impossible for the batters on the same side, that the opposing managers have to watch him, even if he is not in the game. His only weakness on the pitch, if you want to call it that, is that it's not been as accurate as throwing back and forth.
With a victory in Milwaukee, it will obviously not be a consecutive series of routine. You talk about NLCS Games 6 and 7 – a trip to the World Series online. You use Hader both games if you have to, and hope for the best. But with the lead in hand, the specter was suddenly created: if Milwaukee could increase his advantage, Craig Counsell might not need to use it at all. It would be ideal, anyway.
The score remained unchanged until the Dodgers scored a second Miley goal to reduce the lead to 5-2. We have seen the Dodgers do it throughout the playoffs, even in case of defeat. They continue to climb on the base and send a threat after the defeat. The pressure is never extinguished.
Hader was watching from the witness bench with his warm-up jacket. Corey Knebel finished the fifth round of Miley, then a zero to sixth. Jeremy Jeffress finished seventh and Milwaukee opened the scoring with a wild run to 6-2. It was at this point that Hader started to move a little, alongside his teammate Corbin Burnes, who was preparing for eighth place.
"It was no different than anything else," said Hader. "I was getting ready to go out, obviously we had our heads."
This is apparently the beginning of the seventh part. Could the Dodgers force Hader to practice the game, where they could wear some wear on his well-rested left arm and throw darts? Burnes took the hill to start eighth against right-handed Dodgers Justin Turner and Manny Machado. Hader continued to throw. After the right-handers was left-handed Bellinger, then another left-handed to Joc Pederson.
Hader knew he would be used? If so, how?
"At first, it was for left-handed," said Hader. "Then, once Corbin crossed the two right-handed guys pretty quickly, we moved on to the next round."
As Hader just told you, Burnes recorded two quick releases. As Bellinger approached the plate, descending three times and there was no one left on the base, Counsell remained firmly anchored in the last step of the canoe.
"If anyone had succeeded, I think Josh would have had Bellinger," Counsell said.
Nobody escaped. Burnes forced Bellinger to fly regularly to the center. Then, Milwaukee added a seventh series on an Aguilar RBI single. Burnes came in for the ninth and put the Dodgers in order once again.
"Corbin goes up six times and six below, and that's what keeps Josh from playing," Counsell said. "In addition, we collected a few points and gave him some space in ninth place to continue, and the best of times is certain for us."
All in all, the Milwaukee office was far from perfect. It worked 4 2/3 innings of Miley's relief and allowed a baseball player – Knebel hit Pederson on the hands with a throw in the sixth. That's all. A perfect evening in boudin, without Hader. After Burnes finished eighth, a Bullpen coach whispered something to Hader, who hit his glove, took it off and put on his warm-up jacket.
Hader is ready, rested and prepared for what game 7 brings. There is no chance for him to dismiss that.
"We do not have to worry about it today, but it's like LA, when I had to turn around, give everything I got", said Hader. "You have to do this for the team, that's why we play all season, to be at this point." There is no surrender, no half -this is 110%, all you have. "
The Brewers still have to win again against an excellent Dodgers team that has avoided an irreversible catastrophe several times this season. Did they finally push things too far? In the superteam season, could it really be the Brewers representing the National League in the World Series?
Why not? Miley understood everything.
"(Jhoulys) Chacin is six, Hader is three years old," said Miley. "I mapped it."
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