Final Evening in Baseball: Turns Out The Brewers Are a Fairly Good Baseball Workforce

Having a tough time following along with the MLB postseason? Just want to relive the best moments?

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

Brewers put Cubs on the brink

Things started out so well for the Cubs, which was important after the drubbing they took on Saturday in Game 1. Seiya Suzuki kicked things off with a 3-run home run off of starter Aaron Ashby, who didn’t make it out of the second inning, and suddenly anything was possible.

That feeling was brief, as the Brewers responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first, when Andrew Vaughn hit his own 3-run dinger to tie things up.

Ashby didn’t make it out of the second inning, but he also didn’t give up any more runs. Jacob Misiorowski came on in relief in the third, and shoved for three innings in relief — more than enough time for the Brewers’ lineup to inflict even more damage on Cubs’ pitching. William Contreras put the Brew Crew in the lead in the third with a solo shot…

…that also featured an ice-cold bat flip and celebration.

Not only did Chicago not score again, but the Brewers made sure they were properly demoralized, too, with Jackson Chourio hitting the team’s second 3-run blast of the game in the fourth inning, to give Milwaukee a 7-3 lead.

Vaughn twisted the dagger a bit later on using his glove, too: with one out in the seventh and Michael Busch up to bat, Vaughn made a nifty defensive play down the line at first that could have easily been extra bases and the start of something. Instead, we got a defensive gem.

The Brewers are now up 2-0 on the rival Cubs in the NLDS, and will head to Chicago for Game 3 on Wednesday. The Cubs now face the prospect of elimination, and will send Jameson Taillon to the mound against Quinn Priester at 5:08 p.m. ET to try to stave it off.

103, and other fastballs

Speaking of Misiorowski, he of course threw 103 mph in relief, because why wouldn’t he do that? He didn’t need to conserve anything for a 5-6 inning appearance here.

Miz was pumped throughout his time in relief, and you know this without even being aware that he ran to first to get an out pretty early on and then reacted as if it were the ninth inning. As MLB’s Sarah Langs noted, Misiorowski threw 31 pitches of at least 100.0 mph on Monday — that’s the most by any pitcher since the data began to be tracked in 2008. Again: he worked three innings in relief.

You know, it’s absolutely worth seeing if he can develop into an effective big-league starter. But performances like this one make you wonder if maybe a future as Milwaukee’s Mason Miller is going to make a lot more sense for them in the long run, especially in this era of short starts and bullpen reliance.

Oh no 

That’s a hamstring alright.

Stretching is important, yes, but even more important is the right kind of stretching. This ump needs to familiarize himself with a foam roller and a proper set of dynamic warmup stretches. And stretching after the game? You know that’s vital, too.

Phillies why, why?!

It would be unfair to say that the Dodgers didn’t win Game 2 against the Phillies, but the more accurate reading of events is that Philadelphia lost it. Everything was tied up for at zero through six innings, with both starters, Jesus Luzardo and Blake Snell, dealing. Luzardo also helped his own cause with some great instincts.

Luzardo’s pitch count was just 72 after six, so he came out for the seventh, too. It did not go as well as the previous innings: after retiring 17 in a row following a couple of early baserunners, he allowed a single and a double in succession to open the seventh, and was replaced by Orion Kerkering, who promptly allowed both inherited runners to score as well as two of his own: Will Smith hit a 3-run single, then Shohei Ohtani drove in Smith after he was bequeathed to reliever Matt Strahm.

The Phillies would fight back against the Dodgers’ own bullpen in the seventh and eighth. Emmett Sheehan gave up one run on a triple to Max Kepler that was followed by a Trea Turner single, and then Blake Treinen came on in the next frame. It was a disaster.

Alec Bohm opened with a single, then J.T. Realmuto doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Nick Castellanos would then double both of them home, and the Dodgers challenged the tag to no avail. 4-3, Dodgers, with no outs and a runner still on for Philly.

Then, for some reason, the Phillies tried to bunt Castellanos over to third base instead of just being satisfied with a no-out, runner in scoring position situation. Not only did they attempt a bunt here, but in a way where the lead runner was caught! 

Bryson Stott was safe at first on a fielder’s choice, but the damage was done. Pinch-hitter Harrison Bader would single Stott to second, a Kepler ground out moved Stott over to third and then Turner would ground out to end the inning. It’s very easy to see a situation where a similar sequence of events, sans botched bunt, results in a tie game for the Phillies. And then who knows? The deeper a team gets into the Dodgers’ bullpen, well, the more likely it is that something good happens. 

Instead, Roki Sasaki got to come on in relief with two outs already, and just had to get through Turner without facing Kyle Schwarber or Bryce Harper because Philly was willing to risk a bunt with no outs and a runner already in scoring position. Castellanos is no race horse by any means, but you know that’s one the team wants back for a do-over.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers might have solved their bullpen problems to a degree by using starters like Sasaki in relief. Last year it was relievers where starters should go, and this October it’s the opposite.

Well this is cool, at least 

Monday was the 15th anniversary of former Phillies’ starter Roy Halladay throwing a no-hitter in the NLDS, so his two sons came out to throw out the first pitch before Game 2. And they threw it to Carlos Ruiz, who caught Halladay that day, too.

Cot for choice or CHOOOOOOOCH: what’s your preferred Ruizism, anyway?

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