Your Laugh in the Dark at the Sound of the Bell: A Great At-Bat, and Then Something Even Bigger

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Everyone who loves the Milwaukee Brewers will remember Jake Bauers's at-bat in the seventh inning Wednesday night for the rest of their lives. Many of them might forget Andrew Vaughn's, but let's all agree to delay that for as long as possible. When the Dodgers scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 3 in the NLCS, it looked like a possible turning point—like a moment, even, when a series the Brewers had controlled almost breezily to that point might get away from them quickly. Vaughn led off the following frame against cruising Los Angeles starter Blake Snell, needing to reassert the Brewers' ability to compete with the ferocity of Snell's stuff.

To his credit, Vaughn understood his assignment. He didn't take the bat off his shoulder until the sixth pitch of his at-bat. Snell started him with a high fastball, then slipped a biting slider past him to even the count at 1-1. He missed low, then high with a changeup, but on 3-1, he landed one in the bottom part of the zone. If Vaughn had been even a tiny bit too anxious to make something happen, he might well have made an out on that pitch. A pitcher as good as Snell can sometimes use a hitter-friendly count against you; his changeup is nasty enough to induce a weak tapper and well-commanded enough to find the zone when he needs it to. By taking that pitch, Vaughn forced the tiring twirler to throw him another strike.

Snell answered with a high heater, well-calibrated to play off the trio of changeups he'd just thrown, and he got the chase he wanted. Vaughn fouled it off, though, earning a seventh offering in the sequence. Frustrated in his primary plan for getting the Brewers designated hitter, Snell tried to drop a curveball in and freeze him for strike three, but he missed badly. That one (unlike a couple of earlier takes) was an easy swing decision for Vaughn, He accepted his walk.

That brought up Bauers, who had already authored one of the great at-bats in the team's postseason lore, just two days earlier. This time, he had the advantage of facing the starter for a third time, but he also faced a major disadvantage: Snell is a lefty. In his (regular-season) career, Snell has held left-handed batters to a .191/.281/.298 line. In 940 plate appearances, they've only hit 15 home runs against him. The matchup of Snell against lefty batters was so intimidating that Vaughn had started the game, rather than team captain Christian Yelich (who took over at first base, as a pinch-runner). He has four out pitches against lefties. He's a buzzsaw.

Bauers watched a first-pitch slider go by, right in the heart of the zone. You could understand why he didn't chase it. In a way, it was as wise and brilliant a take as Vaughn not swinging at the 3-1 pitch. Called strikes can be wins for the batter; they're sometimes signs of a well-organized approach. One couldn't help but wince a little, though. Shoot. Got one to hit. Might not get another.

In truth, you can almost always get another pitch to hit, but every one you miss makes earning the next tougher. You have to move into a slightly defensive mindset. Bauers watched a changeup in the dirt and a fastball that dipped below the zone, after missing his chance to ambush Snell, and the count move to 2-1. Next, Snell went with a dangerous but dazzling pitch: changeup, left-on-left, risking running into Bauers's barrel on the belief that the pitch would move enough to elude it. The two-time Cy Young winner won his bet. Bauers didn't sit and wait; he was geared up for a hittable 2-1 pitch. He unloaded, but he missed; Snell had out-executed him.

Once it's 2-2, when the tying run is on base and it's getting late, you're not allowed to keep thinking as aggressively as Bauers was when he took a pass at that 2-1 changeup. Dutifully, Bauers went to work proecting the zone. Snell threw a slider, then a curveball, each moving away from him but with plenty of the strike zone. Bauers was trying desperately to stay ready and on time for the fastball, so he merely fouled off each pitch, but at least he managed that; he made contact and stayed alive. Pitch No. 7 was a fastball inside, reminding Bauers not to get too comfortable looking for spin away. That pitch missed the inner edge by about six inches, but it was a good shot, anyway. Had it grabbed the plate, Bauers would have been out. He was fooled, and he then knew he would need to cover the whole zone. On the other hand, the count had run full, so at least Snell no longer had much margin for error, either.

He tried climbing the ladder again, and the same thing that had just played out with Vaughn happened with Bauers. Snell's fastball sailed well above the zone, but not so high that the defensive hitter could let it go. As Vaughn had done, Bauers spoiled it. Unlike Vaughn, though, Bauers didn't then get an easy free pass. Snell is more comfortable pitching to lefties. He went back to that left-on-left changeup on the next pitch, and it fooled Bauers; he barely stayed alive.

Pitch No. 10 is when you knew Snell was in trouble. It was a slider, and it wasn't terribly located, but Bauers was figuring things out. He couldn't stay back enough to keep it fair, but the backspin fly ball he hit down the right-field line almost had home run distance. It was a heart-in-your-throat moment, no matter which side you were on.

The next pitch was in almost the same spot, but a little closer to the middle of the plate, and a bit harder. It was, if we can be blunt, a meatball. It begged to be hit. Bauers did to it what any good power hitter must do, and the game context would have made it one of the biggest homers in Brewers history, no matter what. What made it really impressive, though, was that he got that pitch at all. Bauers, who got that first-pitch cookie and let it go and who was facing one of the toughest lefties in recent memory, worked around some terrific execution from that pitcher and another missed chance to earn a second truly hittable pitch, and when it came, he was ready.

If Vaughn hadn't reached first (where Yelich then sapped some of Snell's attention, and carried the tying run around the bases when Bauers finally went deep), this homer wouldn't have meant as much as it did. Both the team's first basemen were heroes in the inning. It was Bauers, though, who worked more assiduously and overcame better opposition, and then who didn't merely pass the baton, but earned the right to flip the bat, instead.

Two pitches later, Garrett Mitchell put a second exclamation point behind the one Bauers had just affixed to the team's rally. It was an excellent example of the Brewers' malleable relentlessness. Vaughn offered exacting plate discipline and situational awareness. Yelich showed the value of the team's depth and its athleticism. Bauers took the same relentless at-bat as Vaughn, but punctuated it with a display of prodigious talent that would have been beyond Vaughn. Mitchell had some of that to offer, too, and he unleashed it when he saw his opponent reeling and needing a break.

When you want the Brewers to play quickly, they'll slow the game down. When you're in the mood to gratefully accept their patience and the slow development of their rallies, they'll suddenly strike. It was, really, a three-turn barrage that finally broke the Dodgers and rescued Game 3 for the Crew.

But it's Bauers whom we'll always celebrate, and rightfully so. As the broadcasters on each Brewers game have rehashed so often, he nearly walked away from the game before his breakout came. Even once he took a major step forward, he knew he needed to take more. He showed up this spring having made big adjustments, and he's ridden those changes through a star-caliber season.

That at-bat was a microcosm of everything about Bauers. The same way he had to work doggedly to get another pitch to hammer, he had to show perseverance and intelligence and passion to earn this larger second chance. The Brewers specialize in finding and holding onto players with the right mix of those things, and of helping them find those things within themselves. Bauers's whole career has felt like an 11- or 12-pitch at-bat, but until now, it wasn't quite clear whether it would be a noble effort or a true triumph. No longer must anyone wonder about that.

The Milwaukee Brewers need 27 more outs (and a few more runs) to win the National League pennant for the first time. They've gotten here by being patient at the right times, pesky at the right times, and overwhelmingly good at almost all times. After watching Vaughn, Bauers and Mitchell bat late in Game 3, anyone coming late to the party has gotten a rapid catch-up. Yes, it's like this all the time. No, no moment was quite like the one when Bauers connected and gave the NLCS its final big twist.