Brewers Outlast, Outpitch Padres to Advance to Second Straight NLCS

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At long last, in the sixth inning, you could start to breathe—as long as you're not the claustrophobic type. The Brewers already led 2-1 when the inning began, and then Jake Bauers hit a single. Cooper Pratt followed with an automatic double, and Sal Frelick followed that with a sacrifice fly to bring home Bauers. That gave Milwaukee a two-run lead. In this series, that's a lot; that's a windfall.

It was fitting that Bauers, Pratt and Frelick would combine to push across the final tally and begin to stretch the game toward its conclusion—to bring on the sense of inevitability that accompanied so many Brewers wins this year, but which had been absent from the series until that late juncture. After a mostly dreadful series, Bauers was miles better in Game 4; he delivered exactly what the team needed. Walks in his first two plate appearances kept the line moving and broke down the Padres' initial pitching plan, which was in tatters by the middle of the game. He also saved a throwing error by Pratt on one bad throw early in the contest. Pratt, meanwhile, made more than one bad throw (including one Bauers couldn't save him from) early; he looked tight and scared. He was having bad at-bats, too.

Overall, though, he had a strong series, with some key offensive contributions, so to come back with such force in the middle of the game Wednesday night was somewhat to be expected. Frelick, whose hard-worked walk and superb baserunning and strong throwing arm were keys to the team's moving Game 2 comeback, finished the team's final scoring rally with a just-enough batted ball; the perfect emblem with which to seal a just-enough, hard-worked series win.

They were far from being the only heroes, of course. Robert Gasser put the team ahead of schedule with four innings on the mound, looking unflappable even amid terrible early support from his defense. Joey Ortiz allowed a bunt single to Manny Machado by being too slow charging and throwing, and later in the first inning, he eschewed a throw to first base on what could have been an inning-ending 5-3 double play. There were mistakes and missed opportunities like that dotted throughout the game for the Brewers, just as there were throughout the series, but Gasser's ability to work around the problem and avoid damage kept the miscues behind him from snowballing.

Aaron Ashby came through equally brilliantly. Taking over for Gasser, he ended up working three almost-spotless innings, with his power sinker and his high-spin curveball both humming. It was under Ashby's watch that the game really settled down. The Brewers first took the lead, then extended it, and Ashby didn't even permit rallies that he then had to thwart. He was in command, and after a while, so were the Brewers.

Then, of course, they nearly weren't. That's how this series has gone, so it was no surprise when Abner Uribe walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to lead off the bottom of the eighth. If Danger wasn't in your face hollering at you, over the last four games, it was just circling around behind you, ready to rise at your back like the sun—hot, lethal, unstoppable, eternal. Uribe walked Tatis, but he recovered to strike out Jackson Merrill. That brought up Machado, though, and Machado has already gotten a long look at Uribe during this series. He got a sinker that was down, but on the inner half, and he dropped the bat head on it. It was a classic Machado swing, and that almost-safe two-run lead looked like it was sailing into the night, never to return. But Garrett Mitchell was there.

Mitchell had plenty of time to get under the ball. He'd been playing deep, and it was hit with plenty of loft. The wall just to the right of dead center at Petco Park is not very tall. Mitchell got into position, went up off both feet, and caught the ball with both hands—smartly using both, because it helped him manage and survive contact from the reaching hands of fans hoping to catch the hero shot. He came down with it. One harmless foul pop-up (harmless, at least, thanks to Brice Turang and Bauers communicating well and not panicking on an in-between ball) later, the Brewers were back in the dugout. Six outs later, they got to celebrate.

It was Mitchell's night; he had a leadoff triple in the top of the fifth and came home with what was officially the winning run. He was everywhere in Game 4, after often looking overmatched in the first three contests. His catch will be part of Brewers playoff lore forever. It was a wonderful set of moments, for a player who almost wasn't part of this team. Mitchell's chronic injury issues left his future very much in doubt by the end of last season. The Brewers tendered him a contract at the November deadline, but it wasn't without a conversation about whether to do so. His talent has always been obvious, but he's so rarely been able to stay on the field and display it that the club almost had to move on. Now, after a season in which he more than doubled his career playing time, he's also a playoff hero again. That sums up this team quite nicely.

The series was exhausting. Of the 300 plate appearances between the two teams over four games, less than 20% came with a two-run cushion either way, and neither team ever held a lead larger than that. In fact, until that Frelick sacrifice fly in the sixth inning Wednesday, there'd been only 30 such plate appearances in the series, with the plurality of them coming in the first three innings of Game 1. That's how ferociously the combatants contested this set. That's how easily it could have tilted either way.

Huge numbers of plays weren't made (or were made badly) in this series. There were some bad at-bats, especially when the team had chances to cash in big opportunities on offense. Fortunately, the series won't be remembered for those. It will be remembered, instead, for Jackson Chourio's walkoff single in Game 2, and for the homers by Chourio and William Contreras to win Game 1, and for Mitchell's heroics in Game 4. It might also be remembered mostly as a stepping-stone series. The Brewers hadn't beaten a team outside the NL Central in a playoff series since 2018, and they hadn't won a road playoff game since then, either. With those demons vanquished, they enter the NLCS against the Dodgers (who finished off the team from outside Atlanta Wednesday night) feeling like a more fully qualified challenger to the two-time defending champions. They should even be the favorites. This should finally be the year that the Brewers claim their first National League pennant, and although that moment (if it comes) will be much more thrilling for most fans, this series was a very worthy chapter in any championship storybook.