The Milwaukee Brewers were able to get revenge on Craig Counsell by eliminating the Chicago Cubs from the postseason, and their reward for doing that was an opportunity to face off against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers with a trip to the World Series on the line.
While Pat Murphy seemingly discounted his own team's chances of dethroning the Dodgers, Milwaukee played the defending champions tooth and nail in Game 1 of the series at home, loading the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth down by a skinny run, but they wound up falling short.
It might only be Game 1 in a best-of-seven series, but the Brewers have given the Dodgers home-field advantage and will have to play from behind. These four Brewers deserve most of the blame for that unfortunate reality.
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4) Jackson Chourio, outfielder
Jackson Chourio didn't exactly have the MVP-caliber season I expected, but he's still arguably the most talented hitter in this Brewers lineup and had an outstanding series against the Cubs. You wouldn't know that, though, based on how he performed against the Dodgers.
Chourio went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Blake Snell. Sure, Milwaukee's entire lineup was stymied by Snell who was fantastic all night, but Chourio is supposed to be their table setter - he did nothing for most of the game.
To his credit, he did drive in the only run of the night for Milwaukee by hitting a ninth-inning sacrifice fly, but Brewers fans wanted to see him keep the rally going, not give the Dodgers a crucial out on the first pitch against Roki Sasaki, who was on the ropes. Chourio's at-bats were poor against Snell, and I felt that he could've potentially done more than just hit a sacrifice fly with the tying run at second base against a struggling reliever. Perhaps my expectations for Chourio are too high, but it's really hard to win games when he goes hitless.
3) Chad Patrick, relief pitcher
Pat Murphy's decision to use Aaron Ashby as an owner was brilliant in hindsight, and Quinn Priester emphasized that by throwing four scoreless innings as a bulk reliever (thanks largely to some historically great defense). The next man Murphy turned to was Chad Patrick, and understandably so after he pitched very well in the NLDS, but he didn't have as much luck in his NLCS debut.
Patrick got Teoscar Hernandez to fly out to begin the top of the sixth inning in a scoreless game, but the next batter, Freddie Freeman, did what he does best in October by parking a solo shot into the seats in right field. Adding insult to injury, Patrick allowed a single and a walk to the next two batters he faced. At the end of the day, he had recorded just one out against the four batters he faced and he allowed the Dodgers to break the tie.
Jared Koenig helped get through that inning without any further damage, but ultimately, the damage had been done. Patrick allowed the Dodgers to strike first, and he wound up as the losing pitcher of this game.
2) Abner Uribe, relief pitcher
The Brewers failed to do anything offensively for eight innings and trailed 1-0. With the game still within reach, Pat Murphy turned to his closer, Abner Uribe, to try and keep Milwaukee down by just the one run. That move did not work out in hindsight.
Uribe walked two of the first four batters he'd face (one of which was intentional), while a single and a sacrifice bunt bracketed the two free passes. This resulted in the bases being loaded with one out for Mookie Betts. Uribe instantly fell behind 3-0, but clawed his way back into the at-bat by throwing back-to-back strikes. Unfortunately, Uribe's 3-2 slider was nowhere near the zone, meaning Uribe haad issued his third walk of the inning and forced in a crucial insurance run.
Uribe was able to get out of that inning without further damage, but that insurance run proved to be crucial given Milwaukee's ninth-inning rally. We have no idea what would've happened had Uribe done his job and kept this a one-run game, but Brewers fans wish they could've found out.
1) Brice Turang, second baseman
As mentioned above, the entire Brewers' lineup was dominated all night by Blake Snell, and Brice Turang was no exception. He went 0-for-3 against him with a strikeout out of the clean-up spot. As disappointing as it was to see Turang, one of Milwaukee's hottest hitters in the second half of the regular season, struggle against Snell, he had a chance to redeem himself with the game in the balance in the bottom of the ninth.
The Brewers were rallying and even scored a run to cut the lead to 2-1. After Chourio drove in that run, Christian Yelich and William Contreras drew back-to-back walks, loading the bases for Turang. All he had to do to tie this game was get on base against Dodgers reliever, Blake Treinen, who had just walked Contreras while displaying tons of wildness.
The wildness continued in Turang's at-bat, and he even jumped away from a 1-2 sweeper that would've hit him. It's hard for me, a fan watching from his couch, to say Turang should've let an 85 mph pitch hit him to tie the game, but man, a hit-by-pitch would've tied the game. Sure enough, on the next pitch, Turang swung at a fastball several inches above the zone for strike three, and that ended the game.
Turang went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, one of which occurred in the biggest spot of the Brewers' season thus far. It's hard to single him out when just about everyone in this lineup struggled, but expectations are high for Turang, and he did not have a good at-bat with the game on the line whatsoever.